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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24928627">The Fifth Act: Gift Fic Collection</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinnatious/pseuds/Sinnatious'>Sinnatious</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Fifth Act [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Crossdressing, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Gift Fic, Jealousy, Not Canon Compliant, Prompt Fic, Time Loop</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:02:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,630</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24928627</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinnatious/pseuds/Sinnatious</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of gift prompt fills set in the Fifth Act universe.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Fifth Act [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1804111</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>119</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>661</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Visiting Big Brother Across Timelines</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This prompt was for swyrel<br/>Characters: Genesis, Chibi!Cloud, Cloud<br/>Prompt: Cloud finds the location of a hidden lab containing the Chibi!Triplets; however, no one - especially Genesis - is very excited about the addition of Cloud's 'little brothers', especially when they show such an interest in their 'black sheep brother'.<br/>Author's Note: I took liberties with the prompt, and it's extremely not canon compliant as there's no actual way they could exist in the Fifth Act timeline.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Cloud glared at Sephiroth. “This is your fault.”</p>
<p>Sephiroth just looked perplexed. “I fail to see how.”</p>
<p>They were standing in the entrance of the Sector 0 reactor, surrounded by dark steel walls lit green by glowing mako. Long metal catwalks stretched high overhead, and massive pipes rumbled below.</p>
<p>And standing across from them… three far-too-familiar silver-haired teenagers.</p>
<p>“This shouldn’t be happening,” Cloud said. “You shouldn’t even <em>exist </em>here.” Jenova had been utterly obliterated. Sephiroth was alive. In this timeline, there was <em>no one</em> in the Lifestream who either had the motivation <em>or</em> the capability to manifest the triplets.</p>
<p>Except Yazoo, Kadaj, and Loz were all there, and all very much existing.</p>
<p>“That’s not very kind, big brother,” Kadaj purred. His voice was smooth and sultry, but the underlying <em>threat </em>hadn’t changed at all.</p>
<p>Sephiroth apparently heard it too, as he suddenly fixed the triplets with a sharp stare – the kind he normally reserved for enemies. “Do we have a problem here?”</p>
<p>Kadaj’s gaze flicked to Sephiroth, awe and wonder and jealousy flitting across his face, before snapping back to Cloud, full of venom. “The only problem is <em>him</em>. He’s a <em>traitor</em>, and he should <em>pay</em>.”</p>
<p>Cloud palmed the hilt of his sword. He might have felt a bit sorry for the remnants once upon a time, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t <em>completely</em> <em>willing</em> to cut them down. Show them how well they’d fare when he <em>wasn’t</em> half-crippled with Geostigma.</p>
<p>He didn’t get the chance. Sephiroth stepped between them, a physical barrier to the brewing fight. “If you have business with Cloud,” he said, “You first have to go through me.”</p>
<p>The threat turned immediately to dismay. “But he killed mother!” Kadaj protested in disbelief.</p>
<p>Loz’s eyes began to tear up. “Don’t cry, Loz,” Yazoo chided.</p>
<p>“I’m not crying!” he protested.</p>
<p>“Kill me,” Cloud said to Sephiroth. “I’m giving you a free shot. I’m not dealing with this.”</p>
<p>“Don’t joke about such things,” Sephiroth replied with a frown, and then to the triplets said, “And if by mother you mean Jenova, that wasn’t Cloud. I believe Genesis deserves the credit there.”</p>
<p>“You called?” Genesis sauntered in, with Cloud’s past self in tow. He came to an abrupt halt, took one glance at the silver-haired, cat-eyed triplets, and said, “Dear goddess, there are <em>more</em> of him.”</p>
<p>Incidentally, that had been eerily similar to Cloud’s first thoughts on meeting the remnants.</p>
<p>“We need to alert Lazard,” Sephiroth said. “And get someone from the Science Department to figure out where they came from, and whether it’s possible to send them back.” He glanced at Cloud. “You seem to know the most about this. Do you suppose they’ll need holding cells?”</p>
<p>“They’ll probably listen to you,” Cloud admitted grudgingly.</p>
<p>“When I answered the alarm, no one warned me about <em>this</em>,” Genesis complained in the background, even as he fished his PHS out of his pocket. “Is this more time travel? Minerva spare me, do you have <em>children</em> in the future?”</p>
<p>“He’s not our <em>father</em>,” Kadaj declared, with haughty derision enough to match Genesis’s own.</p>
<p>“He might as well be,” Cloud muttered under his breath.</p>
<p>Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at him. “If I recall correctly, they called <em>you</em> big brother.”</p>
<p>“Brother?” the younger Cloud asked, utterly flabbergasted. “…Does this make <em>them</em> my uncles too?”</p>
<p>“<em>We are not brothers</em>,” Cloud stressed, glaring at Sephiroth. “Don’t encourage them.”</p>
<p>“I don’t get paid enough for this,” Genesis declared, flipping his PHS open and dialling one-handed. “Lazard? I’m not taking this one.”</p>
<p>“That’s cruel, big brother,” Yazoo chided Cloud. “You’re making Loz cry.”</p>
<p>Loz had his arm over his eyes. “I’m not crying!”</p>
<p>He refused to deal with this. Cloud plucked the PHS from Genesis’s hand and held it to his ear. “Lazard, I’m quitting SOLDIER.” Then he handed it back and stalked from the Reactor, leaving Sephiroth in charge of his three younger look-alikes and his thoroughly bewildered past self.</p>
<p>“Is he really-?” the younger Cloud hesitantly asked.</p>
<p>“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Genesis reassured him. “This is the third time he’s quit this month.”</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chocobo Grand Prix</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For firedraygon97<br/>Characters: Cloud, Zack, Kunsel<br/>Prompt: The Gold Saucer is hosting a grand prix-type chocobo race, and Cloud has a need for speed.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>ShinRa, for all of its exploitation, had at some point in the past recognised that things such as ‘battle fatigue’ and ‘stress’ and ‘overwork’ existed, and that these things not only reduced productivity, but in the case of certain departments became actively dangerous. To both the employee and, more importantly, anything or anyone in said employee’s vicinity.<br/><br/>So every year at some point or another, usually after particularly taxing missions, nearly every SOLDIER got sent on a compulsory company sponsored holiday outside of Midgar. Normally to Costa Del Sol, but also to Junon, and on this particular occasion, the Gold Saucer.<br/><br/>“This is the best,” Zack declared, because even though everyone already knew it, it deserved repeating. “Who would have thought that they’d open the Battle Arena to SOLDIERs? I mean, isn’t that unfair?” He tossed his shiny new materia in the air as proof.<br/><br/>“Most people would consider including a <em>dragon</em> in the final round unfair,” Kunsel pointed out.<br/><br/>“Yeah, but it wasn’t like it was a <em>big</em> dragon. Although I wonder how they caught it in the first place.” He spun the materia in his hands one more time before tucking it away. “Hey, where did Cloud go? I haven’t seen him since we hit the Speed Square.”<br/><br/>“There’s a Chocobo Grand Prix on, he said he was going to check it out.”<br/><br/>“Chocobo Grand Prix?! Why didn’t you say something sooner? C’mon!” Zack grabbed his friend by the arm and hauled him towards the Chocobo Square with SOLDIER speed. Kunsel could keep up after all, even if he groaned about it.<br/><br/>In a whirlwind of gil and activity, bets were placed, seats secured, and Kunsel and Zack were sitting in the stands, arms laden with snacks. “This is gonna be great!” Zack cheered.<br/><br/>Kunsel grabbed for the drinks. “Hey, don’t hog it all. Who did you bet on, anyway?”<br/><br/>“Number 5, of course.”<br/><br/>“Seriously? The payout stinks. Odds are too high to make it worth it.”<br/><br/>“Yeah, but Number 5 is racing a black chocobo. There’s nothing faster. Why would you put your money on anything else?” Zack declared triumphantly. Ha! For once he knew more about something than Kunsel did!<br/><br/>“I thought you might have put your money on Cloud, though,” Kunsel offered in amusement.<br/><br/>Zack blinked. Processed that. Then… “Wait, Cloud’s <em>racing</em>?”<br/><br/>“I said he was going to check out the Grand Prix, didn’t I?”<br/><br/>“There’s a huge difference between ‘checking out’ and <em>competing</em>! I didn’t even know he knew how to ride chocobos! Isn’t he more a motorbikes kind of guy?”<br/><br/>“Chocobos at top speed can go as fast as a motorbike, you know,” remarked Kunsel.<br/><br/>“Have you <em>seen</em> Cloud ride a motorbike? I don’t think they can.” Zack’s words were fervent. That had been a harrowing mission.<br/><br/>The warning horn blared, and the jockeys brought their birds to the starting stables. Kunsel elbowed him. “See? He’s wearing the purple vest, Number 3.”<br/><br/>Damn, it really <em>was</em> him. “He’s only on a yellow, though.” Zack squinted. “It’s a good bird at least, I guess. I don’t know enough about chocobos to tell, but it seems really, um, healthy?” Now he was torn between cheering for his bet or backing his buddy.<br/><br/>Kunsel just grinned at him. Zack was instantly suspicious.<br/><br/>Then the starting pistol cracked, and he realised why.<br/><br/>Cloud <em>streaked</em> out of the stables. Even the black was left in his dust. The audience was left with mouths agape as the jockey and bird pulled away from the group with every stride, not even slowing down on the change of terrain. No way even an S-class yellow chocobo could-<br/><br/>Unless…<br/><br/>Kunsel answered before he could ask. “It’s a Gold. Bred it himself.”<br/><br/>“When the hell does he have <em>time</em> for all this?” Zack lamented.<br/><br/>Kunsel just patted his back in commiseration.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Truth About 'Uncle'</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For swyrel<br/>Characters: Genesis, Young!Cloud, Cloud<br/>Prompt: Young Cloud finds out who his 'Uncle' actually is</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Cloud had the feeling he wasn’t supposed to see the confrontation.</p>
<p>But his hero, Commander Rhapsodos, had ambushed his uncle in the corridor.  Cloud had been about to announce his presence to them both, but then the Commander had started <em>talking</em> and it was about <em>him</em> and Cloud completely forgot about honour and immediately started channelling his inner Kunsel.</p>
<p>“The boy’s talented with materia,” Genesis opened abruptly.</p>
<p>His uncle made a small sound of what was probably agreement in his throat.</p>
<p>“You never said anything about it.”</p>
<p>His uncle shrugged.  “Things have changed a lot.  I wasn’t sure if it would be the same.”</p>
<p>“Such talent is independent of the enhancements.  In that regard, mako does more to bolster endurance than anything else.”</p>
<p>His uncle shrugged again.</p>
<p>It was hard not to be jealous, sometimes, of how his uncle seemed to command his idol’s attention so easily.  He didn’t even seem to <em>care</em> for it, whereas Cloud still couldn’t believe the incredible luck he’d had.  When he’d come across Kunsel on Mount Nibel, he never expected that would one day lead to him getting the privilege of <em>personal attention</em> from the very best SOLDIERs in the company.</p>
<p>“I’ve hardly seen you use yours,” Genesis remarked.  “And I don’t think I’ve seen you use that dark green one, or that summons, at all.”</p>
<p>“…They’re not materia to be used lightly,” was his Uncle’s eventual reply.</p>
<p>“You’ll have to demonstrate.”  The tone made it sound like a foregone conclusion.</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“I need to have some concrete measure of the boy’s potential, of course, if I’m going to teach him properly.”</p>
<p>Cloud’s initial giddiness at the prospect of being taught by the Commander quickly faded into confusion.  He kind of wanted to see what his uncle could do with materia – the few glimpses he’d caught in the past had been impressive – but what did his <em>uncle</em>’s materia skills have to do with <em>his</em> potential?</p>
<p>“We’re not the same person anymore, you know,” his uncle pointed out.  “I was never into <em>Loveless</em> as a kid.”</p>
<p><em>What</em>?</p>
<p>Genesis sniffed.  “To your eternal loss.  Yet another improvement you have rendered in this timeline.”</p>
<p><em>Timeline</em>?</p>
<p>His uncle looked mildly amused, but only said, “We can go out onto the Wastes if you really want, just don’t go judging him on the results.”</p>
<p>The Commander huffed, crossing his arms.  “You are not so different as you think, you know.  He <em>did</em> drag that Second Class across the continents entirely by himself.”</p>
<p>“That’s not such a big deal.  Lots of kids made the same trip about the same age.”</p>
<p>“With a comatose patient, and hiding from ShinRa?”</p>
<p>His uncle rolled his eyes.  “You’ve made your point.  Let’s go.”</p>
<p>They started walking ahead, but Cloud found his feet rooted to the floor.</p>
<p>Had he heard right?  Could that mean what he thought it meant?</p>
<p>There had been a lot of weird discrepancies with his Uncle, and Zack and Kunsel sometimes said things that didn’t make a lot of sense.  With this, though, all the pieces started fitting together in a frighteningly clear way.</p>
<p>The concept of time travel was a little mind-boggling, but then, he’d been learning a lot about materia from Commander Rhapsodos, and it could do all sorts of things.</p>
<p>What <em>happened</em>?  He admired his uncle – he was family, and he was <em>strong</em>, and kind, even if he could be a little standoffish, and Cloud felt like he understood him – and that his uncle understood him in return.  But Cloud couldn’t imagine how it worked – the SOLDIER program was cancelled.  And why hadn’t he liked <em>Loveless</em>?  The moment Cloud had first heard about Commander Rhapsodos had been <em>life-changing</em>, and he could remember it with perfect clarity.  Why hadn’t it happened in another timeline?</p>
<p>Still… his 'uncle' was <em>him</em>?  From the <em>future</em>?</p>
<p>That was kind of <em>awesome</em>.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. A Bowl of Nibelheim Stew</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For isadorathegreat<br/>Characters: Cloud, Young!Cloud, Cloud's mother<br/>Prompt: After Young!Cloud finds out about all these time travelling shenanigans, he decides that a temporally displaced mother and son pair should reconcile.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>People trying to wring sequels from me one giftfic prompt at a time.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Cloud watched his ‘uncle’ shift uncomfortably in front of the house. “I don’t think this is a good idea,” he said, for the third time that day.</p><p>“It’ll be fine, I promise,” Cloud asserted. It still fascinated him. This was <em>him</em>, in the future. Well, a version of him. Once he had a little more context, he’d been able to figure out some more of the details, and deduced that he wasn’t likely to become the man in front of him. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about that. After all, his so-called uncle was <em>totally awesome</em>, stronger than Cloud had even <em>dreamed</em> of being.</p><p>But at the same time, he rarely seemed <em>happy</em>. Cloud didn’t really want to be like that. His smiles were scarce, and while he’d been gradually loosening up around the other SOLDIERs, sometimes Cloud noticed him pausing around certain topics or words, or even places, gaze turning inward before he would change the subject.</p><p>He’d looked homesick. He’d looked lonely.</p><p>Which was what led them both here.</p><p>“But last time…” his ‘uncle’ hedged.</p><p>“I called Ma and explained and she promised not to shoot at you this time,” Cloud interrupted, and now that he thought about that with new context, wow, that whole thing was kind of awful. Ma had been shooting at her <em>own son</em> and wasn’t even aware of it. “Sorry,” he added, which probably didn’t help but <em>someone </em>had to say it.</p><p>“It wasn’t her fault,” his ‘uncle’ replied half-heartedly. “But how did you get her to agree?”</p><p>“I told her how you were really nice and stuff and had been looking out for me,” Cloud rushed. “Come on, let’s go inside! She’s probably waiting.”</p><p>That wasn’t all he’d said, of course. His Ma could be stubborn sometimes. But he hadn’t thought he could just outright explain, either. He’d received the very strong impression that this time travelling business was supposed to be super-secret. So what he’d really done was beg for her to at least give him a chance, and asked her to decide who exactly she thought the older Cloud Strife was after that.</p><p>It was a gamble, but even if they were different, even if he would never become that person anymore… his mother ought to be able to recognise her own son, right?</p><p>He threw open the door and hustled his older self inside. “Ma! We’re here!”</p><p>It was the least he could do. After all, his ‘uncle’ didn’t have a mother anymore. And even if they weren’t <em>actually</em> family in the traditional sense, well… he could share, couldn’t he? It would be kind of like having a much older brother. It didn’t seem right that he got to keep Ma, and his wayward future self didn’t have anyone. It was just <em>too sad</em>.</p><p>“I’m in the kitchen!” his mother called in response, as though the aroma of stew wasn’t giveaway enough.</p><p>His older self had frozen in the hallway, gaze roving over the walls with a bereft sort of hunger that was more than a little unsettling. For the first time, it occurred to Cloud that maybe his time-travelling counterpart hadn’t been home even longer than since he’d jumped back in time.</p><p>
  <em>“Take care of your mother in the meantime. She needs you, more than SOLDIER does.”</em>
</p><p>Cloud shivered away the memory of those words, not wanting to think any deeper into them. The question balanced on the tip of his tongue, but he wasn’t supposed to <em>know</em> about the whole time-travelling thing, so he bit down on it and summoned a sunny smile copied straight from Zack. “I hope you’re hungry! Ma always cooks way too much whenever we have guests.”</p><p>His ‘uncle’ nodded numbly, following him to the kitchen where his – <em>their</em> – mother was drying her hands. “Cloud, it’s good to see you. Come here, so I can get a good look at you.”</p><p>His older self took half a step forward, but Cloud saved him the awkwardness by rushing ahead and giving his Ma a tight hug. “Thanks for agreeing to this,” he whispered in her ear.</p><p>She huffed lightly under her breath, but didn’t say anything, breaking away to regard their guest with a polite, if slightly wary, detachment. “My apologies for the last time we met Mister…?” she offered leadingly.</p><p>“Um, just Cloud is fine. Oh, actually, if you want-” His ‘uncle’ slanted an awkward look at him.</p><p>Cloud crossed his arms. “I’m not going to be called ‘junior’.”</p><p>The older Cloud winced. “No, I mean, I had a friend…” he began awkwardly. “If it would make it easier, he called me Spike, too. Because…” He gestured vaguely towards his hair.</p><p>…<em>Had</em>?</p><p>The more he gleaned about the future, the happier he became it wasn’t going to happen that way anymore.</p><p>“It suits you.” She stole a mischievous glance at her son. “Unruly hair must run in the family.”</p><p>“<em>Ma!</em>” Cloud complained.</p><p>It seemed to diffuse some of the tension in the room, though, so Cloud was more than happy for his older doppelganger to borrow his nickname for a while.</p><p>“Yes, well, my apologies. My darling boy here tells me I jumped to conclusions and that I should hear you out,” she said. Cloud briefly wanted to curl into a tiny ball of concentrated embarrassment at the ‘darling boy’ until he remembered that it wasn’t anything his time-travelling counterpart wouldn’t have already heard. Huh. It already was a bit like having a sibling.</p><p>“No, it… it was understandable,” his ‘uncle’ said softly. “At the time I didn’t realise… That is, I didn’t really know much about my father. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come.”</p><p>His mother’s wariness was quickly being replaced by curiosity and puzzlement. “Oh, but if you didn’t know, how did you know about-”</p><p>“I’m starving!” Cloud blurted out before she could finish that thought. “Sorry Ma, but can we eat? It was a long trip.”</p><p>“Of course! Take a seat, I’m almost done, it’ll be just a minute.” She bustled her way around the kitchen. Cloud’s older self took a step towards his regular seat, seemed to think twice about it, and then took the one they kept for guests.</p><p>Really, now that he <em>knew</em>, the time travel thing just seemed kind of <em>obvious</em>. But maybe… maybe this was a bit cruel, too. Cloud hadn’t considered that. Was this just throwing everything his alternate self’s face? Taunting him with what he couldn’t have anymore?</p><p>Too late to turn back, though. And his Ma was already opening up, he could tell.</p><p>Although… “Hey, so who is your Dad anyway?” he whispered across the table. “Why does Ma hate him so much?” It sounded like he knew who he was, which was more than what Cloud knew.</p><p>His ‘uncle’ visibly flinched at the question. “It’s not important,” he evaded, in a flat tone of voice that left no room for argument.</p><p>Cloud mentally marked that down as ‘yet another time traveller mystery to find out about later’. Maybe Kunsel would help.</p><p>“What are you whispering about, Cloud?” his mother asked, dropping his plate in front of him. It was piled high with stew, the faint aroma of spices in the sauce tickling his sinuses. He’d only been in Midgar for a few months, but he’d yet to find a place that carried even half of the herbs his mother grew in her garden. Some things just never made the trip across the continents.</p><p>“I was only telling him how great your cooking is Ma,” Cloud replied with an innocent smile.</p><p>“Sure you were,” was the good-natured reply, as she served up a plate for their guest and herself, finally sitting down with them. “Go ahead, then. Tuck in. You boys must be hungry after coming all the way here. Fighting monsters, aren’t you?”</p><p>“I’m just support for now,” Cloud said, and didn’t even mind admitting that anymore. “Genesis has been teaching me a lot about materia.” His gaze was fixed on his ‘uncle’ though, as he took a slow, careful bite of Ma’s special homemade stew. Watched him savour it, and saw the look pass across his face, the distance in his eyes.</p><p>“Is the food okay?” his mother asked.</p><p>When he answered, his voice was tight, and near hoarse. “It’s… it’s wonderful,” he replied. “Thank you.”</p><p>And Cloud knew for sure that he’d made the right decision.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Junk Mail</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For Obiquiet<br/>Comment Prompt: Genesis receiving Treasure Princess spam on Cloud's PHS.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Cloud's PHS beeped. Genesis carelessly scrolled through the received messages to check the latest one. More spam.<br/>
<br/>
From: Treasure Princess<br/>
Subject: Totally fine and stuff<br/>
Content: HEY, I'M HERE IN THIS CREEPY MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, TOTALLY NOT SURROUNDED BY WOLVES OR ANYTHING, YOU'D BETTER NOT COME, THIS TREASURE IS GOING TO BE MINE FOR SURE THIS TIME.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. On the Way Back From the Goblin Bar</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For silvershadowkit <br/>Characters: Cloud, Sephiroth, Zack, Genesis<br/>Prompt: 'I would like something after the events of Act V in which Cloud starts to realize that he doesn't have to be apathetic with Sephiroth and they start to develop a friendship. It doesn't have to go any farther than you're comfortable, but I can imagine Zack being happy and drunk, and Cloud and Sephiroth having to drag him back to his quarters and laughing, and Cloud realizing this isn't as bad as he thought it would be.'</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This one contains references to M/M slash so skip this one if that bothers you.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Back in Nibelheim, when he’d accepted that maybe Sephiroth had become an ally instead of an enemy, he never <em>once</em> imagined that would lead to he and the General dragging a completely inebriated Zack and Genesis back to their quarters from the Goblin Bar.</p>
<p>He’d thought it was impossible for SOLDIERs to get drunk. That turned out to be not quite true – it was impossible for <em>Cloud and Sephiroth</em> to get drunk.  For the rest of SOLDIER, it just happened to be very hard.</p>
<p>Zack, apparently, had been up to the challenge. And had managed to bring his peers down with him.</p>
<p>Genesis simply hadn’t wanted to be beaten by Sephiroth.</p>
<p>Cloud just thanked Gaia Kunsel caught on at some point and replaced his own alcohol with water.</p>
<p>“-And <em>that’s</em> why Tseng <em>totally</em> has a crush on Cissnei!” Zack concluded triumphantly, then stumbled into the wall. </p>
<p>“Sure Zack.”  Cloud carefully steered his friend back to the centre of the hallway, and wondered if it would be wise to clue the SOLDIER in to the Turk’s crush on his girlfriend.  Probably not.  Maybe he’d keep it up his sleeve as blackmail.  Having blackmail on a Turk never hurt.</p>
<p>Next to him, Sephiroth was helping Genesis along, though the redhead appeared none too pleased about it.</p>
<p>“I don’t need you to escort me back to my apartment! I am not drunk! As the war sends the sacrifice at the world’s end, the hero sails over the water's surface…”</p>
<p>“You are drunk,” Sephiroth replied, amusement clearly audible in his voice.  “You’re mixing up verses.”</p>
<p>“Where’s Angeal?” Zack asked blearily – for the twentieth time that night.</p>
<p>“He had the wisdom to sit this entire misguided outing out,” Sephiroth replied, then grumbled something about colleagues not pulling their weight under his breath.</p>
<p>Cloud didn’t think he would ever get used to hearing the feared General Sephiroth <em>grumbling</em>.  A smile twitched his lips.  As much trouble as it might be, this whole situation turned out rather entertaining.  It was something so delightfully… <em>normal</em>.  Something all of his fellow cadets had done, something all his fellow SOLDIERs did.  Something he never thought he’d have the chance to.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Sephiroth saw. “You should smile more, Cloud.  It suits you,” he remarked.</p>
<p>The smile immediately vanished, and Cloud scowled at him.  Out of habit, really.</p>
<p>“What? Cloud’s <em>smiling</em>? Twice in one week?”  Zack slung a heavy arm around his shoulders.  His breath stank of alcohol.</p>
<p>“Don’t make such a big deal out it,” Cloud muttered, dragging his burden along a little faster.  Zack stumbled with him, and started belting out some drinking song, though none of the words were actually discernible… or much of the tune, either.</p>
<p>“Your singing,” Genesis declared, with an overlong pause between each word, “is dreadful.” He said it as though it were a personal affront. Knowing Genesis and his love of the arts, it very well might have been.</p>
<p>“I wonder how S-cells react when you’re having sex,” Zack suddenly wondered aloud.</p>
<p>Sputtering, Cloud nearly dropped his friend then and there.</p>
<p>“What?  You can’t say you’ve never thought about it!”</p>
<p>Sephiroth had the daring to look contemplative.  “<em>Don’t even think about it</em>,” Cloud warned.</p>
<p>The General just smirked. Teasing the time-traveller had apparently become everybody’s favourite pastime.</p>
<p>“But you and the General have your… your… <em>thing</em>.”  Zack flapped an arm, very nearly hitting Cloud in the face. “I mean, I mean, if you were to <em>make out</em> even <em>half</em> as intensely as you fight- I <em>really</em> wanna see <em>that.</em>”  He ended with a lecherous grin.  Genesis made some sort of sound that was somewhere between a huff and a squawk of indignation.</p>
<p>Cloud closed his eyes and counted to ten. He was <em>not</em> going to think about whatever adolescent fantasies he might have nurtured back in his original timeline. He <em>wasn’t.</em> “You’ve got a girlfriend.  You’re not supposed to be…” He groped for the right word, hoping his face wasn’t as red as it felt.</p>
<p>“Engaging in vivid gay fantasies about his coworkers?” Sephiroth smoothly supplied. “Definitely not. But do continue, Zack. I would like to hear more.”</p>
<p>Genesis looked rather put out about the course of the conversation, and pushed away Sephiroth’s supporting arm again as some sort of silent protest. “I can walk,” he hissed, then frowned at his feet as though he’d forgotten how.</p>
<p>“I’m just sayin’,” Zack slurred.  “You and Sephiroth. <em>Totally hot</em>.”</p>
<p>Sephiroth raised an eyebrow suggestively at him, and now freed of Genesis, leaned in so close that his silver hair brushed his shoulder and his breath – also heady with alcohol – warmed his face. “Well, Cloud?  Do you care to… experiment?” </p>
<p>Cloud’s glare was worthy of Shiva.  “<em>Never in a million years</em>.”</p>
<p>“He’ll come around,” Zack drunkenly consoled his General. “After all, he said the same thing about being your friend!”</p>
<p>Cloud punched him.  Hard.  And then Genesis set him on fire.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Jealousy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>firedraygon97 <br/>Characters: Genesis/Cloud<br/>Prompt: Jealousy</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Genesis halted in the hallway.<br/><br/>He should have been tipped off by the absence of other SOLDIERs. Every time the two came face to face, you couldn’t clear the area faster even if you threw a grenade into the room. But he hadn’t truly believed it until he’d seen it. Sephiroth, <em>making small talk</em> with Cloud Strife in the corridor.<br/><br/>“How did your mission go?”<br/><br/>“Fine.” The response was clipped.<br/><br/>Awkward silence. Then, “How is your training progressing with Sergeant Kunsel?”<br/><br/>“Why do you want to know?” came the immediate challenge.<br/><br/>“You were working with materia in the Training Room… before.”<br/><br/>Moody silence.<br/><br/>“Your collection is… impressive. All mastered, and that looks like a Summon materia. Those are quite rare.”<br/><br/>More silence. Then, Cloud stated, “It’s nothing special. You’ve mastered plenty of materia, too.”<br/><br/>Genesis’s fingers curled into fists.<br/><br/>“I’m surprised you noticed.”<br/><br/>“I don’t miss much when it comes to you,” Cloud muttered darkly.<br/><br/>Indeed, Cloud missed nothing when it came to Sephiroth. Even now, as the General caught his eye and nodded greeting to Genesis, Cloud showed no sign of registering another presence. As always, others did not fall into his focus. From the very beginning, he thought only of Sephiroth. The tension, that all-consuming hatred… <em>a soul corrupted by vengeance</em>.<br/><br/>Genesis had grown more tolerant of his rival now that he’d been brought down a peg or two, but it rankled him that <em>even in this</em> Sephiroth found a way to usurp him, monopolising Cloud’s attention just by being in the room.<br/><br/>Perhaps he could have still endured, if it stopped at just Sephiroth. But no. There was SOLDIER Second Class Zack Fair, too. Initially, he approved of Angeal’s Puppy befriending Cloud – the boy had good taste in company, and anyone you spoke to would say that Zack Fair was a kind and loyal friend. But why had Cloud chosen to entrust his first name to that SOLDIER before anyone else? And it didn’t escape his notice, either, the way Cloud watched his fellow Second with haunted eyes when he thought no one was looking.<br/><br/>Cloud was <em>his</em> saviour.<br/><br/><em>They</em> were not <em>deserving</em>.<br/><br/>He could bear it no longer. Before Sephiroth could open his mouth to say anything further, Genesis swept forward, seizing Cloud by the arm. “Come, Sephiroth, let us avoid <em>temptation</em>.”<br/><br/>“Genesis. I had no intention-” Sephiroth began, but before he could complete his sentence, Genesis had whisked the blond SOLDIER away.<br/><br/>Thankfully, Cloud did not argue, stumbling along after him. “Genesis?” he asked, sounding confused.<br/><br/>They eventually wound up in the Equipment Room, and Genesis released him.<br/><br/>“What was that about?” Cloud asked, glancing back towards where they’d left Sephiroth standing. “Not that I’m angry, but-”<br/><br/>“Look at <em>me</em>,” Genesis hissed, grasping the blond by the shoulders. “Stop always looking at Sephiroth and just look at <em>me</em> for once!”<br/><br/>Then those stormy blue eyes turned, finally, to truly, honestly, look at <em>him</em>.<br/><br/>Genesis sucked in a breath.<br/><br/>There it was again. He hadn’t imagined it. That flash he’d seen in Wutai, and again when he’d first spoken to Cloud after his arrival at ShinRa.<br/><br/><em>Understanding.</em><br/><br/>Genesis had never been <em>understood</em> before. Certainly Angeal tried, but there was a difference between comprehension and empathy.<br/><br/>It was absurd, of course. But Genesis was sure of it. Cloud <em>knew</em> what it felt like to be rival to a man you could never hope to match, <em>shared</em> the frustration he felt, <em>comprehended</em> the pain of being used and thrown away by people he’d sworn allegiance to.<br/><br/>“…What’s wrong?” Cloud asked, still staring at him with those eyes that stripped away his every defence and saw his weaknesses and <em>accepted</em> it. Those same eyes that had seen him at his very worst in Wutai, and still found something worth saving.<br/><br/>Genesis’s hands slid down the coarse purple fabric of the blond’s uniform to drop to his sides.<br/><br/>“<em>When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end, The goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar, she guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting...</em>”<br/><br/>“…You just wanted to discuss <em>Loveless</em>?”<br/><br/>Genesis waved a hand dismissively, and headed back outside. “You didn’t appear to be enjoying Sephiroth’s attempt at conversation. It was a painful thing to watch. I figured I would spare us all the embarrassment of letting it drag on any longer.”<br/><br/>Yes, he was satisfied with this. All Genesis had to do was remind himself that even though the blond’s attention might be monopolised by Sephiroth, <em>he</em> was the one Cloud had chosen to save. And that was what made it bearable.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Toad Materia</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For gardensgnome<br/>Characters: Kunsel, Cloud<br/>Prompt: Cloud thought that Kunsel's native habitat would be the city but learns that a good SOLDIER, especially a Turks orientated SOLDIER, can go native almost anywhere.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>“Hey, watch it!”</p>
<p>Cloud paused, looking down at his feet in consternation. He was deep inside the Gongaga jungle, and a touch-me toad had just spoken to him.</p>
<p>His hand automatically went up to the Ribbon tied securely around his bicep. Still there. Not a hallucination.</p>
<p>“Oh, hey, Cloud? That you? What are you doing out here?”</p>
<p>The toad knew his name, too. Maybe he’d finally proven everyone right by going crazy the natural way. “Have we met?”</p>
<p>“Have we- oh, right. Do you have a Transform materia on you? I was on the way back to mine.”</p>
<p>“I’ve got a Heal materia, will that do?”</p>
<p>“If you can get an Esuna out of it.”</p>
<p>Cloud dutifully cast Esuna, because he didn’t see any reason not to. A moment later, in a cloud of pink, pungent smoke, Kunsel appeared before him. “Hey, thanks man.” He patted himself down, adjusting his helmet to sit properly on his head.</p>
<p>“<em>Kunsel</em>?” The Second Class had a habit of popping up in the oddest of places, but the <em>Gongaga Jungle</em>? “What are you doing here?” Kunsel almost exclusively took missions in Midgar, since a good chunk of his duties involved training up SOLDIER hopefuls. He never once seemed like the kind of SOLDIER who would be comfortable on a mission in the jungle.</p>
<p>“We can’t all pick and choose our missions, you know. Oh hey, it’s just over here. Seems so much further when you’re ankle-high.” Kunsel fished a glowing materia from the hollow in the base of a tree a couple of strides away.</p>
<p>Judging by the colour, this was the Transform materia he’d been talking about. “What would you have done if something happened to that?”</p>
<p>Kunsel shrugged. “The spell would have worn off eventually. And none of the native wildlife here will mess with the toads.” He stretched and yawned. “There was an infestation that was causing problems for the Reactor. But hey, mission accomplished!” He paused. “Why are <em>you</em> here?”</p>
<p>“Yuffie,” Cloud offered, and didn’t bother explaining beyond that. “You got hit, then?”</p>
<p>“By a <em>toad</em>? Give me some credit, I might only be Second Class but I can avoid a couple of Frog Songs.”</p>
<p>Cloud deadpanned. “This is what all of our materia training has come to. You turned <em>yourself</em> into a toad. On purpose.”</p>
<p>“I <em>could</em> have spent a week killing every touch-me toad I came across, or I could infiltrate their waterhole and destroy all the eggs and be done in a day.”</p>
<p>“You’re terrifying. Is there anything you’re <em>not</em> an expert in?”</p>
<p>“Look who’s talking,” Kunsel replied. “Come on, Zack’s parents live nearby, let’s go get some stories to embarrass him with later.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Highly Dangerous Merchandise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For signrain<br/>Characters: Cloud, Sephiroth, Genesis, Zack, Cissnei, Luxiere<br/>Prompt: Shinra want to sell their first class action figures, Cloud FC , a Cross-dressing mission and mother hen Angeal <br/>AN: I don't think I managed to hit all the details of this prompt, but hopefully this suffices.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>“There are rumours that Don Corneo has come into possession into some potentially <em>highly dangerous</em> ShinRa cargo,” Sephiroth reported, silver brows furrowing on the last few words. “We cannot risk a frontal assault, lest the… <em>merchandise</em> gets damaged, so we’re performing an infiltration mission.”<br/><br/>“I exercise my right to refuse missions,” Cloud said immediately.<br/><br/>“How does he <em>do</em> that?” Zack complained. “Is this another one of those future things?”<br/><br/>Sephiroth, Cloud, Zack, Angeal, and Cissnei were gathered in the Briefing Room. Lazard was nowhere to be found – no doubt preferring to avoid being the one to issue this particular mission. Kunsel’s scarcity was telling in itself, too. <br/><br/>“SOLDIER First Class Cloud Strife,” Cissnei greeted, stepping in. “I assume you already know what the infiltration would entail, then?”<br/><br/>Cloud glowered at her. The slight brunette <em>looked</em> and <em>acted</em>, sweet, but Cloud had known far too many brunettes who also looked and acted sweet but would happily carve up marlboros with nothing more than a dagger. He wouldn’t be taken in by it. She was a Turk, after all.<br/><br/>“I understand your reluctance, but it’s very important, and I’m afraid our options are… somewhat limited.”<br/><br/>“What about <em>you</em>?” he asked pointedly.<br/><br/>“We need to stack the deck,” Angeal cut in, his tone light and diplomatic. It occurred to Cloud why exactly Angeal was there – to soothe the inevitably ruffled feathers, to put him at ease, and to be the steady voice of reason. It would have worked with almost any other SOLDIER in the program – and probably had many times in the past - but Cloud and Angeal had far too much water under the bridge between them for that. The grin the older SOLDIER was struggling to conceal didn’t help matters, either. “Cissnei’s the Turk representative, but we need some muscle to back her up, and we can’t risk having other innocent civilians in the way.”<br/><br/>“And this way we quadruple our chances for success,” Cissnei agreed.<br/><br/>“We have already drafted SOLDIER Second Class Luxiere, and Commander Genesis has <em>graciously</em> agreed as to help as well,” Sephiroth remarked in a flat tone. Cloud glared at <em>him</em>, too. He had a much better poker face than Angeal, but Cloud could <em>sense</em> the amusement coming from him.<br/><br/>“So?” Cloud asked. “That’s three, right? Why do you need me too?”<br/><br/>“Don Corneo typically brings four girls in a time,” the General explained with an air of patience.<br/><br/>…Perhaps Don Corneo had become less picky as he grew older. <em>Four girls?</em> <em>Three</em> struck him as a bit pathetic. Or maybe his private little empire had actually <em>shrunk</em> by the time AVALANCHE came onto the scene. More girls to entertain more employees.<br/><br/>Cloud’s skin started itching.<br/><br/>“…We wouldn’t ask this of you,” Cissnei said apologetically. She was really very good at faking it. “But you understand, in SOLDIER...”<br/><br/>“Mostly beefcake, right?” Zack cut in with a laugh. <br/><br/>Cissnei smiled. “Right. You could put all the makeup in the world on them and they’d still look manlier than half of the regular security forces. Take the General, for example. He wouldn’t even need a wig, but it wouldn’t fool anyone for half a minute.” Sephiroth inclined his head in acknowledgement, lips twitching at the thought.<br/><br/>“Aren’t there any <em>actual women</em> you can ask?” Cloud asked in a deadpan.</p>
<p>"None available with the security clearance,” Sephiroth explained.<br/><br/>Wait. “And <em>I</em> have the security clearance?”<br/><br/>“The Turks are of the opinion that since you <em>are</em> from the future, you are logically already <em>aware</em> of the company’s secrets,” Cissnei replied. “Thus security clearance is a moot point.”<br/><br/>Cloud stared at them. They all returned his gaze expectantly.<br/><br/>“…No.”<br/><br/>“Aww, come on Cloud!” Zack cajoled. “You could be <em>saving lives</em>! What’s a bit of discomfort?”<br/><br/>“<em>Not interested</em>.” His answer was final, and they all heard it. <br/><br/>Angeal sighed. “Guess that leaves us with no choice, then.” He turned to his former student. “Zack, it’s going to be up to you.”</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/><br/>Cloud felt tired just watching them.<br/><br/>The Equipment Room had been overtaken by the three SOLDIERs preparing for the evening’s mission – several hours in advance at Cissnei’s insistence. Given their current progress, the Turk had known <em>exactly</em> what she was doing. They were going to need every minute.<br/><br/>Though why <em>Zack</em> hadn’t used his rights as a First Class to refuse the mission defied all understanding. <br/><br/>At least one person was happy about it. “I’m really excited we’re finally going on a mission together, Zack!” Luxiere gushed. Cloud hoped the eyelash-batting was simply a reflex from the unfamiliarity of wearing makeup. “I’ve wanted to work in the field with you for a long time.”<br/><br/>“Hey, thanks man,” Zack said, grinning even as he struggled with his silky black wig. It wasn’t going well, and the manhandling would have it soon resembling his usual spiky hairdo. “Doubt we’ll see much action, though. It’s supposed to be infiltration and all.”<br/><br/>“Depends on what your definition of <em>action</em> is,” Genesis sniped. “Stop that, you’re wrecking it. Here, let me.” He snatched the wig from Zack’s fingers and started attempting to comb out the tangles, a pained look on his face.<br/><br/>“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” Angeal said, sounding in some parts worried, but mostly amused. “Zack doesn’t have such a great track record on stealth missions.”<br/><br/>“Hey, totally not my fault!” Zack protested. Genesis started muttering oaths to the Goddess under his breath.<br/><br/>Genesis at least seemed to have a flair for makeup that no one could account for, and he’d put these skills to marvellous use on himself and Luxiere, making their skin smooth and blemish-free, and using careful application of blush and tones to round their faces and soften the edges. They were also both wearing ample mascara and eyeliner, presumably to help hide the slight glow in their eyes. A casual observer would pass it off as a trick of contrast in the makeup rather than the mark of a SOLDIER.<br/><br/>By no means did either of them make <em>beautiful</em> women yet, but they were… convincing enough, if both a little too tall and broad. Luxiere’s wig of tumbling brown curls distracted the eye from his unusually muscled shoulders, and a carefully arranged shawl of fluffy white fur – likely from a northern couerl – when wrapped around his arms would give off both an air of elegance and the illusion of a better chest than what the stuffing could provide.<br/><br/>For his part, Genesis had donned a wig of red hair, a shade brighter than his natural colour, and perfectly matched by the red high-necked dress he wore. He had been in the process of attempt to wrest it into twist, and presumably would adorn it with the glittering hairclips scattered across the table. The dress itself was a heavily decorated affair, with sequins and ruffles in all of the right places, the complexity artfully hiding the lack of curves. A black feather boa would complete the ensemble.<br/><br/>In short, they were works in progress, but it was easy to see how once their outfits were fully assembled – stockings and shoes and jewellery – and the last touches on their hair and makeup were added, that they might even pass into the realm of <em>attractive</em>.<br/><br/>Zack, on the other hand…<br/><br/>“Stop blinking!” Genesis ordered, having temporarily wrested Zack’s wig into order – at the expense of his own – and now moving on to makeup.<br/><br/>Even with the dress and wig and the beginnings of makeup, Zack still looked exactly like Zack. Luxiere and Genesis were well on their way to being not only convincing women but also <em>professional escorts</em>. Zack, on the other hand, hadn’t yet even crossed the line to <em>tomboyish</em>.<br/><br/>There was no way they wouldn’t get found out <em>immediately</em>. The whole mission would be a bust before they even made it in the front door.<br/><br/>“This is stupid,” Cloud muttered to himself. But he couldn’t just sit back and watch them get exposed and compromise the whole mission. <em>Lives</em> could be at stake. “Zack, go get changed.”<br/><br/>“Huh?” The SOLDIER paused, one eye still fluttering under Genesis’s mascara brush.<br/><br/>“I’ll do it,” he grumbled. “Stay here. I’ll be back in three hours.”<br/><br/><br/></p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/><br/>“Are you <em>certain</em> that’s what he said?” Cissnei demanded. She’d turned up half an hour before, dressed in a little emerald green party number that showed off an obscene amount of leg, and looking entirely un-self-conscious about it. “Maybe we should try and get Zack dressed again, in case.”<br/><br/>Genesis scoffed from where he was still fussing over his makeup in the mirror. “Impossible. A <em>week</em> would not be time enough.”<br/><br/>“We kept going for an hour anyway, just in case, but...” Angeal's shrug was all the answer they needed.<br/><br/>Zack rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin, and tried his best not to be offended. “Guess I’m not suited. Sorry!” He’d been happy enough to help, and hey, he wasn’t afraid of stepping outside of his comfort zone, but it became quickly apparent that he’d never be able to pull it off.<br/><br/>Luxiere was sulking, disappointed at the prospect of no longer running a mission with him. Zack didn’t see the big deal – there’d be other missions, although he guessed the prospect of having to run a mission with <em>Genesis</em> and <em>Cloud</em> would be enough to make most Second Classes nervous.<br/><br/>The door to the Equipment Room whooshed open, and five heads swivelled expectantly towards it. Five sets of shoulders drooped when Sephiroth entered instead. The General paused. “I’m sorry?”<br/><br/>“Waiting on Cloud, sir,” Zack explained.<br/><br/>He nodded. “I see. I was wondering why you hadn’t left yet.”<br/><br/>“I’m still surprised he changed his mind,” Angeal added.<br/><br/>Sephiroth pursed his lips. “Yes. Cloud does not... change his mind <em>easily</em>.”<br/><br/>Cissnei checked her bracelet – or rather, her watch, artfully disguised as a bracelet. “We have to leave soon, or we’ll miss the window.”<br/><br/>“Cloud is nearby,” Sephiroth assured her. “He should be here any moment.” That earned a reliable scowl from Genesis.<br/><br/>Before he had the chance to remark, however, the door whooshed open once more.<br/><br/>The woman who stepped in froze all of the SOLDIERs in their tracks. <br/><br/>She wore a simple dress – plain purple silk that clung to her hips and slid aside to reveal a tantalising glimpse of pale, toned leg, clad in pantyhose that shimmered in the artificial light. Her gloves reached beyond her elbows, and revealing only the barest tease of pale shoulder blades beneath the loose, silky shawl wrapped around her shoulders, constantly threatening to slide down and expose the collarbones beneath.<br/><br/>Blonde curls framed a delicate face of smooth skin and full, glossy lips. A diamond tiara lay nestled, gleaming, in her hair. The scent of cologne drifted through the air, a subtle perfume of mountain roses and vanilla liquor. She wore only the lightest traces of blush and eyeshadow, but through thick eyelashes, her eyes seemed to <em>glow</em>.<br/><br/>“<em>The goddess descends from the sky</em></p>
<p>
  <em>Wings of light and dark spread afar,</em>
</p>
<p><em>She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting…</em>” Genesis breathed. The rest of them had been struck dumb.<br/><br/>Until Cissnei shattered the stunned reverie with a short nod of approval. “Excellent, Strife. I <em>knew</em> you could pull it off!”<br/><br/>Zack made a series of sounds that might have been swearing, or possibly just words lacking any sort of vowels. Luxiere gaped. Angeal blinked, and hurriedly averted his eyes to the ceiling in a somewhat guilty fashion.<br/><br/>Sephiroth, for his part, had adopted a curiously blank gaze.<br/><br/>“So Cloud,” the General said in a tone of perfect neutrality, “I take it then, that you’ve done this before?"<br/><br/>Cloud stepped forward, expression shifting subtly into one of <em>threat</em>. Normally, this would have all of the SOLDIERs in radius clearing out at supersonic speeds, or at the very least reaching for the nearest sharp thing in defence.<br/><br/>For once though, Cloud didn’t have his crazy sword on him, so the danger, while real, wasn’t quite so mortal. And dressed like that… the stance looked <em>feline</em>, and predatory, and the glare that promised death turned into something more like a heated smoulder.<br/><br/>In short, it looked a lot less like he was about to <em>murder</em> Sephiroth, and a lot more like he was about to <em>jump his bones</em>.<br/><br/>“<em>Shiva</em>, that’s <em>hot</em>,” Zack blurted.<br/><br/>Everyone turned to look at him. Including Cloud, whose eyes narrowed even further, and that wasn’t helping his case <em>at all</em>.<br/><br/>“What?! Just because I have a totally awesome girlfriend doesn’t mean I can’t recognise hot when I see it!” Zack protested.<br/><br/>Genesis swept forward, visibly fascinated. With silk-gloved hands, he delicately caught the blond’s chin and tilted his head from side to side, inspecting it – Cloud caught too off guard to do anything more than comply in surprise. “I <em>recognise</em> this work. The foundation is of the finest quality, the makeup subtle, the absolutely <em>perfect</em> edging around the eyes… <em>How did you get her to do it?</em>”<br/><br/>“Who?” Cissnei asked, looking interested.<br/><br/>“The makeup artisan of the Sector Six Theatre Grand!”<br/><br/>Cloud stepped back somewhat carefully. “…Is that her regular job? I met her at the Honeybee Inn.”<br/><br/>“I thought the Honeybee Inn was Member’s Only,” Zack commented. At the stern look from Angeal, he spluttered and said, “Hey, it’s not like I actually went! And this was <em>before</em> I met Aeris!”<br/><br/>“And this dress!” Genesis barrelled on. “I would recognise this style of design anywhere! Combining modesty with allure, the stitching creating the illusion of shape… His costumes are legendary! I thought he retired!”<br/><br/>“He just needed inspiration, apparently,” Cloud muttered. If the Planet wanted to swallow him up at any point, now would be the opportune time.<br/><br/>“And this tiara-!”<br/><br/>“The Inn in Wall Market has an odd reimbursement policy…”<br/><br/>“And this wig is made of genuine-”<br/><br/>“There’s this gym in the slums I’d rather not talk about,” Cloud cut in abruptly. “Now are we going or not?”<br/><br/><br/></p>
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<p><br/><br/><br/>Cissnei, Genesis, Luxiere and Cloud had absolutely no trouble gaining admittance to Corneo’s mansion. Cloud already knew they wouldn’t. That didn’t make it any less depressing. He wanted the mission to succeed, certainly, but it might have salvaged his masculinity a little if the guards had looked a bit suspicious, or at least had not let them in with quite so much <em>enthusiasm</em>. <br/><br/>This particular adventure had been one he’d been sure was gone from the timeline forever. Instead, much like Zack falling through Aeris’s church roof, it had found a new outlet. At least, this particular infiltration had obviously never happened in his original timeline, otherwise AVALANCHE wouldn’t have been able to use this ruse. Maybe because Zack was such a hopeless girl they’d abandoned it. Or something else had changed, and the need for the infiltration had never come up at all.<br/><br/>But it was actually <em>easier</em> this time. He wasn’t responsible for making sure none of the girls were molested, which took a great deal of stress out of the whole miserable equation. Cissnei was a full-fledged Turk, after all – frankly, Cloud pitied any employee of Corneo’s who thought to take advantage.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, that meant that this time he was free to worry a lot more about <em>himself</em>. Had there been this many leering gazes the first time? It wasn’t any real danger to him, even without First Tsurugi, but his skin crawled all the same. It was an unpleasant insight into how the some of the girls at the HoneyBee must have felt <em>all the time</em>.<br/><br/>“Uncultured cretins,” Genesis muttered under his breath. Redheads, it turned out, were quite popular too.<br/><br/>“We’re not entirely certain where the cargo has been hidden,” Cissnei reminded them in a low voice as they were led through the luxuriously furnished halls. “Try not to raise the alarm too soon, or they might hide it and we’ll never find it. Hopefully Corneo will choose me, and I’ll ply him for information.”<br/><br/>“How?” Luxiere asked. “You’re not going to… you know…” His expression was stuck somewhere between fascinated and repulsed. He pulled his fur shawl around himself a little tighter.<br/><br/>“Turk interrogation technique 101,” Cissnei whispered with a perfectly straight face.<br/><br/>Genesis rolled his eyes at Luxiere’s shell-shocked expression and muttered behind the cover of his feather boa, “Don’t be a fool. She means he brags.”<br/><br/>“Guys like him have to show off to the girls however they can,” Cissnei remarked. “But you don’t have to worry about that. Just focus on finding out what you can through questioning. If you can slip away without breaking cover, search as many rooms as you can without being noticed.”<br/><br/>Cloud wondered if he should warn them about the spa. Whoever drew that straw might have a rough time of things. That might even be worse than dealing with Don Corneo himself.<br/><br/><em>Why</em> was he doing this again? Right. Lives at stake.<br/><br/>Then Cissnei didn’t have any more time to whisper last-minute instructions at them, as they’d arrived in the central chamber, where Don Corneo was talking with a small coterie of his goons and two rather shady-looking businessmen. <br/><br/>He was just as roly-poly as Cloud remembered – a wingless ahriman in a dress suit. He still had a mostly full head of hair of blond curls though, unlike five years in the future when he’d been all but bald. Doing business with the Turks – even when it was above-board – could do that to a man.<br/><br/>“Oh goody! They’re here!” Corneo clapped and rubbed his hands together greedily, bouncing forward with an almost boyish eagerness, like a chubby child rushing for the cookie jar. Luxiere recoiled, but schooled his expression back into a fixed smile when Cissnei ground one of her heels into his foot. Genesis, being the most talented actor among them, had adopted a look of professional boredom as Corneo leered over them each in turn.<br/><br/>Cloud kept his eyes averted, careful to hide the mako glow. His shawl slipped a little, and self-consciously, he pulled it tighter, the satin moving like water across his shoulders. It was poor protection from their leering gazes. <em>Gaia</em>, it <em>already</em> felt like he wasn’t wearing enough without them so obviously undressing him with their eyes. <br/><br/>“So many choices! Oh, this one’s cute, too!” Corneo bustled from Cissnei, to Luxiere, to Genesis, raking his gaze hungrily across their bodies.<br/><br/>Cloud had been hoping that since his outfit wasn’t <em>precisely</em> the same – the dressmaker had decided gloves and a shawl was better than long sleeves this time, and the wig he’d won at the gym had been a little different too – Corneo might pass him up, and go for the obviously better choice of Cissnei.<br/><br/>The minute those beady little eyes landed on him, though, he knew his night was only getting worse.<br/><br/>Though it might have done him some good to have at least <em>pretended </em>to be surprised.<br/><br/><br/></p>
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<p><br/><br/><br/>“Ah, at last we’re alone… now pussycat… come to Daddy,” Corneo purred. Or rather, <em>attempted</em> to purr. His greedy stare drank in every inch of his companion’s form as he drew ‘her’ to the bed. “You’re something else, I don’t think I’d ever get tired of looking at you. Do you… do you like me too?”<br/><br/>The bed was the last place Cloud wanted to be – it was covered in red silk sheets and looked like it had come straight from one the Honeybee Inn’s gaudier rooms. He perched on the very edge, and scrambled to buy some time. “I don’t know…”<br/><br/>“What?! Is there someone else?!” Corneo looked genuinely distraught for a man who entertained multiple escorts every week. Cloud wondered if this happened <em>every</em> time he brought girls in, or if this were a special torture just for him.<br/><br/>“Not exactly…” Probably wasn’t a good idea to crush Corneo’s spirits too soon.<br/><br/>“Who is it? Tell me!” he whined.<br/><br/>How could he angle this towards what he wanted to know? Something to do with ShinRa, maybe. “Oh, you know… there’s this SOLDIER…” There. Zack had signed him up to all of the fanclubs – <em>including his</em> – against his will. He could fake his way through this.<br/><br/>To his surprise, Corneo’s expression grew almost <em>wicked</em>. “Oh. Oh! Well, yes, they <em>are</em> very popular. But I have something that will make me <em>almost</em> as popular, you know.”<br/><br/>Cloud didn’t even have to fake his curiosity. “Yeah- I mean, yes?” Hard to remember to talk without slang and to act properly reserved. He bit his tongue as Corneo’s hand brushed its way down his spine and settled in the small of his back.<br/><br/><em>Lives were at stake</em>, Cloud firmly reminded himself.<br/><br/>The mafia don nodded, and leaned in close as though to impart a secret. Cloud struggled not to lean back, even as the stink of Corneo’s aftershave grew overpowering. “It’s a <em>present</em>! One I know you’ll <em>definitely</em> love.” His eyes shone with greed and lust, even as he hopped off the red silk sheets and waddled over the closet.<br/><br/>“It’s going to make me very very rich, you know. Richer than your wildest imagination. You’ll <em>definitely</em> like me when you see this, and we can have <em>wonderful</em> times together,” Corneo confided, as he moved aside a pile of silk bathrobes to reveal a box… stamped with the ShinRa logo.<br/><br/>…Mission accomplished. Cloud was a little bit freaked out by how <em>easy</em> that had been.<br/><br/>He was wondering if it were okay to clock Corneo over the head and alert the others now, but Corneo wasn’t quite finished, chuckling to himself as he opened the box and started rummaging through it. “The <em>real</em> treasure is the casts, of course – we’ll be able to make as many as we need! But for you, my sweet little pussycat, I’ll give you your choice of one of the <em>prototypes</em>. An exclusive gift for <em>exclusivity</em>.” He waggled his eyebrows, and brought a tray over.<br/><br/>A tray of… SOLDIERs?<br/><br/>Cloud stared dumbly at the plastic action figures. <br/><br/>He picked up a figurine of Sephiroth and stared at it, dumbfounded. It even came with a slightly shorter-than-life Masamune. There was Genesis, too, posing rather vaingloriously with a book in one hand and his rapier in the other. Angeal with his arms crossed in some sort of cheesy action hero pose. Zack, in a lounging sprawl, throwing a grin at nothing in particular. There was even <em>himself, </em>with his shirt zip lowered far further than Cloud <em>ever</em> wore it.<br/><br/><em>This</em> was the ‘highly dangerous’ ShinRa cargo he’d subjected himself to this torture for?!<br/><br/>“Do you know how many people died in the stampede when it was just Sephiroth’s? <em>Those</em> figurines sold out in less than three minutes, made ShinRa quite a bit of money I think.” Corneo chortled to himself. “Go on, then. Choose one. Whichever one you want! You’d better hurry, though, I’m not sure if I can keep myself away much longer.” Apparently thinking <em>this</em> had bought him all the good graces he could possibly need, Corneo’s hand slid over the purple silk on his thigh, creeping underneath the slit in the dress.<br/><br/>The figurine cracked in his grip. In less than an eyeblink later, Corneo was slumped on the bed with the promise of some fine bruises and a hairline fracture to greet him in the morning.<br/><br/>In a feat of spectacular timing, the door burst open. Cissnei stood there, hair in disarray, looking particularly cranky, but her eyes lit up when she saw the box. “Strife! Good work! You… found… it…” she trailed off when she finally registered his expression.<br/><br/>Luxiere and Genesis were there moments later, looking similarly harried. “What’s this?” Genesis asked, critically. “<em>This</em> is what we went on this <em>ridiculous </em>excursion for? I let those bottom-feeders <em>breathe</em> on me for this?!” <br/><br/>Cloud’s feelings exactly.<br/><br/>“They’re very valuable!” Cissnei protested, looking the most flustered any of them had ever seen the Turk. “The prototypes don’t matter quite as much, but these casts were made by a premiere sculptor we had to ship in from the Northern Continent! They’re the basis of our entire industrial line!”<br/><br/>“A premiere sculptor?! My hair looks <em>nothing</em> like this!” He snatched up the figurine of himself and shook it at the Turk.<br/><br/>Cloud shook his head in disgust, and stalked from the room. He paused only long enough to drop the figurine of Sephiroth to floor and very deliberately grind it underfoot with his disgustingly uncomfortable high heels. Cissnei winced, but sighed, and pulled a miniature microphone out of her hair. “Tseng? The merchandise has been secured. Have a van ready to meet us at the entrance.”<br/><br/>In the spirit of compensation, she didn’t say anything about Luxiere’s rather poor attempts at hiding the prototype of Zack’s figurine in his fur shawl. And <em>nothing</em> the company paid her would ever make her acknowledge the Cloud figurine that had mysteriously gone missing during Genesis’s theatrics, either.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. The Zack Within Cloud</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For peangallery<br/>Characters: Cloud, Zack, Sephiroth, Genesis, Kunsel, Angeal<br/>Prompt: Would Act V people ever get to meet the Zack that's with(in) Cloud?</p>
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    <p> </p>
<p>Genesis, naturally, was the first one to notice it.<br/><br/>“Cloud acts strange whenever he’s talking to the Director,” he opened without preamble.<br/><br/>“Which Cloud are you talking about?” Sephiroth asked.<br/><br/>“Don’t play stupid, you’re not fooling anyone. You <em>know</em> which Cloud.”<br/><br/>Sephiroth conceded with a tilt of his head. “How do you mean?”<br/><br/>“You haven’t noticed?” Genesis spent a long moment visibly struggling between smugness and indignation. Indignation won out. “I expected that from Angeal and Zack, but I thought <em>you</em> at least might have paid that much attention to your rival.”<br/><br/>“I’ve not had many opportunities to see them interact,” Sephiroth dismissed. “Everything considered, Lazard prefers not to assign us to the same mission.”<br/><br/>Genesis glowered at him, and then turned on his heel in a snap. “Very well then. Spend some time in Lazard’s office tomorrow. You’ll see what I mean.”<br/><br/></p>
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<p><br/>At first Sephiroth had been sceptical, especially when his old friend had insisted that he see for himself instead of explaining the source of his concern.<br/><br/>After Cloud had come and gone from both his mission briefing and subsequent report that day though, he began to see why. And he suspected Genesis’s insistence lay in the desire for a second opinion, as it was not a phenomenon easily explained.<br/><br/>“So?” Genesis demanded at the end of the day.<br/><br/>“You brought Zack and Kunsel for this too?” Sephiroth asked, directing a glance at the two. Zack gave him a cheerful wave.<br/><br/>“Naturally. They are often privy to information we are not.” Genesis emphasised this with a hard look at Kunsel, who valiantly kept his attention focused entirely on his PHS. It was no secret at this point that the Second Class knew far more about Cloud’s history than the rest of them, and resolutely refused to share any of it.<br/><br/>Genesis and Zack found it annoying. Sephiroth and Angeal found it worrying.<br/><br/>“You’ve all had the opportunity now to see it for yourselves,” Gensis continued. “What do you think?”<br/><br/>“I think you’re hypersensitive when it comes to Cloud,” Angeal said with a small smile.<br/><br/>“I think that I really don’t need to be here,” Kunsel announced, stood to leave the room, then froze under the combined stare of four First Classes. Shoulders slumping, he reluctantly retook his seat.<br/><br/>Mollified, Genesis turned his gaze on Sephiroth, imploring.<br/><br/>“I have to admit, I hadn’t noticed, but now… Genesis has a point,” he admitted.<br/><br/>Angeal raised an eyebrow. “How so?”<br/><br/>“Even among us, Cloud can be… taciturn.” It took him a moment to search for the most appropriate words. “But in Lazard’s presence he becomes… almost talkative. His stance changes. I wouldn’t say he was <em>cheerful</em> but…”<br/><br/>“He makes <em>jokes</em>,” Genesis interjected.<br/><br/>“Cloud makes jokes all the time!” Zack protested.<br/><br/>“I’m not sure if those lame sayings of his are meant to be jokes,” Kunsel muttered.<br/><br/>“Look, Lazard more or less sold him out to me and Hollander,” Angeal said in a low voice, plainly reluctant to even bring that memory up. “It’s hardly surprising that he acts a bit different.”<br/><br/>“The Turks were far more complicit when it came to Hojo, though, and he acts no different at all around them,” Genesis pointed out. “And in that event, doesn’t it make more sense if he were <em>more</em> silent rather than less? Like when he first came to ShinRa?”<br/><br/>“Why not just ask him about it?” Sephiroth said.<br/><br/>The room fell silent.<br/><br/>As always, Zack was the first to crack. “He’s got a point. What’s the worst that could happen?”<br/><br/>“He could try to kill Sephiroth again,” Angeal pointed out.<br/><br/>“Okay, so maybe Genesis can do the actual asking,” Zack amended. “…Is he still doing that? I thought we cured him of it.”<br/><br/>“I generally avoid testing my luck.” Sephiroth wasn’t sure which memory was the more unsettling – the sword biting into his shoulder, or Masamune piercing Cloud’s chest. “And Lazard has been brave enough lately to start complaining about property damages again.”<br/><br/>Zack remained undeterred. “Point is, worse that <em>will probably</em> happen is that he refuses to answer.” He crossed his arms. “It’s probably nothing, and we’re all just sitting here overthinking it.”<br/><br/>It was a valid point, and far more productive than having clandestine gossip sessions to guess what made their resident time traveller tick. Especially given their history of being <em>fantastically incorrect</em> in such respects.<br/><br/>With a plan made, they quickly dispersed – Zack’s PHS beeped with a message from his girlfriend in the slums so he disappeared out the door, and that seemed to signal the end of the discussion for everyone else.<br/><br/>Kunsel caught his arm before he could leave the room, though. Sephiroth blinked, staring down at the Second Class. He liked the SOLDIER well enough, but rarely did they ever interact directly. “SOLDIER?”<br/><br/>“Sorry sir. But just… when you go talk to Cloud, leave Zack behind okay? Make up an excuse, send him on a mission, anything.”<br/><br/>The request was odd, given the friendship the two SOLDIERs shared. “Why should we?”<br/><br/>Kunsel just shook his head. “I don’t think Genesis will let it go, so I won’t try to stop you bringing it up with Cloud. But please, sir. Just make sure you leave Zack out of it. He doesn’t need to know. And you shouldn’t put Cloud in that position.” His piece said, the Second Class slipped past him into the hallway.<br/><br/>Worrying, indeed.<br/><br/></p>
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<p><br/><br/>Genesis wasn’t the patient sort. It wasn’t hard to convince him there was no need to wait for Zack for their ‘confrontation’. <em>Angeal</em> wanted to wait, but given the other two thirds of their trio were already halfway out the door, had no choice but to come along or be left behind. Kunsel, for his part, had made himself scarce – Sephiroth had not caught even a glimpse of the SOLDIER since that portentous exchange of words.<br/><br/>It was easy enough these days to track Cloud down now that Sephiroth had learned how to consciously exploit S-cells. He concentrated on the connection long enough to pinpoint the errant time traveller in one of the gyms of the lower levels – one which thankfully would be otherwise deserted at this time of day. Then cautiously sent a sort of burst of awareness along the link, to let him know they were coming.<br/><br/>Cloud hadn’t taken kindly to it to begin with, but he’d come to appreciate the ‘knock’ as good manners, and had even on occasion done the same in return. The social etiquette for managing their connection was still something of a work in progress, but there <em>was</em> progress.<br/><br/>As evidenced by the fact that when they reached the gym, Cloud was in the middle of reassembling his sword, instead of halfway across Midgar avoiding him.<br/><br/>“Cloud,” Sephiroth greeted.<br/><br/>“What’s going on?” he asked warily.<br/><br/>Genesis wasted no time on pleasantries. “You’ve presented us with yet another mystery, Cloud Strife. We want to know what your issue is with Lazard.”<br/><br/>Cloud blinked. A complex mishmash of emotions fluttered across his face before it shut down hard, back to the reserved, neutral Cloud they’d come to know. “What about it?”<br/><br/>“Genesis thinks you act a bit unnatural when dealing with him,” Angeal offered. “Rather than make assumptions about it, we figured it was better to just ask.”<br/><br/>Sephiroth kept quiet, watching carefully. Genesis huffed, crossing his arms with an annoyed glance at Angeal. “Your demeanour is dramatically different. You make <em>jokes</em>, and talk louder. It is <em>not</em> my imagination.”<br/><br/>Behind that carefully blank stare came the glimmer of realisation. “I... didn’t realise,” Cloud murmured. “It’s been so long since…” He looked strangely shaken by the revelation.<br/><br/>“Since what?” Sephiroth prompted.<br/><br/>“It’s… I guess you could call it a bad habit. Usually when I’ve been having a bad day, or I’m trying to hide something.” He hunched his shoulders, as though bracing against an invisible cold. “Every time I think I’ve finally kicked it, it creeps back in.”<br/><br/>“A habit?” Genesis repeated blankly.<br/><br/>Cloud didn’t respond to that. Just said, “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t mean anything.”<br/><br/>“That’s a lie,” Sephiroth interjected. He didn’t even need the bond to tell that much. As difficult as Cloud could be to read, they’d all come to recognise his tells when he was being evasive.<br/><br/>Angeal gave Cloud a sympathetic glance and shrugged. “You know neither of them are going to let it go, you know. Zack either, when he hears about it.”<br/><br/>Suddenly Cloud’s gaze turned sharpened, swivelling to the SOLDIER with such abruptness that both Angeal <em>and</em> Genesis took a step back. “…If I tell you now, will you promise not to tell Zack about it?”<br/><br/>“Why-” Angeal started to ask, but Sephiroth cut him off.<br/><br/>“If it’s that important to you, you have our word.” He arched an eyebrow at Angeal, who looked displeased at leaving his protégé out for reasons unknown, but conceded easily enough. Like Genesis, he owed Cloud far too much to disagree with such an earnest request.<br/><br/>“In that case… maybe it’s best if I just show you.” Cloud straightened his shoulders, raised his head, and said, “Hey guys!”<br/><br/>It was only two words, but there was a world of difference between them. A certain swagger to his stance, a bolder projection to his voice, his vowels slightly snappier.<br/><br/>And Sephiroth suddenly realised why Kunsel had been so insistent that Zack not come.<br/><br/>Genesis didn’t make the connection immediately. “So you put on a more outgoing personality? What makes that such a terrible habit?”<br/><br/>“Ah, well, you see, there’s a little more to it than that…” Cloud rubbed the back of his neck, a trifle sheepishly.<br/><br/>That was when Angeal clued in. “Zack.”<br/><br/>Cloud turned and grinned – acutally <em>grinned</em> - at Angeal. And as unsettlingly different as that was, with the ghost of Zack Fair behind it, it didn’t look out of place on his face at all. “Got it in one.”<br/><br/>Then, as quickly as it had been donned, the cloak was shed, and Cloud Strife as they knew him stood before them once more.<br/><br/>“It’s a performance worthy of the finest of the actors,” Genesis murmured, in an envy threaded with awe.<br/><br/>“It’s not exactly a performance,” Cloud admitted in a voice now so low even Sephiroth strained to hear it. “And it’s a different Zack, to the one you know. Up to a certain point, until the Wutai War, they’re much the same, but after that…”<br/><br/>Cloud had always been reticent regarding their individual alternate histories – at least, beyond Sephiroth. It was easy to extrapolate that Genesis and Angeal would have fallen to degradation, and Cloud had mentioned never knowing Kunsel in his original timeline, but the matter of Zack Fair was never precisely settled. The death of his mentor may have driven him from the company, or he could have been felled in a mission, or even by Sephiroth himself.<br/><br/>This, however… this spoke of something far more unsettling.<br/><br/>“But why?” Angeal asked. “For what purpose?”<br/><br/>“It wasn’t – There was no <em>purpose</em>, exactly.” He shifted his weight, almost as though to turn and leave, but stayed his ground. He seemed resigned now that they wouldn’t leave without a more thorough explanation. “For months I didn’t even realise it. After the events at Nibelheim… I was messed up for a while.” They could all hear the omissions there, and could all guess what lay in those gaps. Hojo. The source of Cloud’s S-cells. “I don’t know exactly how it happened, but it might have been related to the fact that Zack was originally enhanced using the Project G method. I wound up with some of his memories. And since my memories were a mess…”<br/><br/>It was a disturbing notion. None of them had anything to offer in light of that.<br/><br/>“And when you did realise?” Angeal asked.<br/><br/>“I told you part of that story already. It took a while, but with the help of an old friend, I sorted out which parts were me and which… weren’t. But I’d been acting like that for so long, even after my memories were sorted out…” He shrugged.<br/><br/>“An actor struggling to let go of a role,” Genesis mused.<br/><br/>“Anyway,” Cloud concluded, “I didn’t realise I was doing it again. Thanks for letting me know, I guess – I should be able to avoid it in the future. And if you could not mention to Zack...”<br/><br/>All three of them nodded their swift agreement. And with that, the matter was closed. Cloud made his escape, and the three friends dispersed in awkward silence.<br/><br/>The answer to that mystery had been uncomfortable enough that none of them remembered to wonder what exactly Cloud wanted to hide from Lazard so badly.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Bike Riding in Style and Strife</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For gardensgnome<br/>Characters: Cloud and Kunsel<br/>Prompt: "You're showing a bit too much leg there. Maybe I should drive."<br/>"Of course I'm showing leg. This is what happens when I'm stuck in a Gaia damned dress, trying to drive my bike and fight off monsters. I'd like to see you try."</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>The bike veered sharply to the right, throwing up a spray of grass and sand. The hounds howled for blood, claws scrabbling for purchase as they overshot.<br/><br/>Kunsel tossed another hail of ice into the pursuing pack, earning a handful of yelps. Several fell back, but the following horde surged forward, undeterred. "You know, you're showing a bit too much leg there. Maybe I should drive."<br/><br/>Cloud hit the release for the sword compartments, drawing out the smallest and lightest of his swords. "Of course I'm showing leg. This is what happens when I'm stuck in a Gaia damned dress, trying to drive my bike and fight off monsters. I'd like to see you try."<br/><br/>“No thanks. If Cissnei finds out I can pull off cross-dressing as well as you do I’ll never escape it. I’m not allowed to refuse missions like you.” Kunsel paused to lean over and cut down an oversized hound as it snarled at their heels. “Why did you accept <em>this</em> one?”<br/><br/>“It didn’t involve any cross-dressing when I accepted,” Cloud snapped, and gunned the accelerator. “Hang on.” Kunsel slung an arm around his waist in a crushing grip. The dark purple silk of his dress flared as they launched off an incline. The landing rattled their bones, but gained them precious distance from the pursuing mob.<br/><br/>“Seriously, I think I should take over. I can barely hit anything with the way you drive!” Kunsel said in his ear, then immediately proved himself wrong by throwing a bolt of lightning along their flank and taking out three more hounds in one hit. “Plus your hair keeps getting in my face. Can’t you take off the wig at least?”<br/><br/>“Does it look like I have a hand spare right now?” Cloud cut a sharp left, driving them into a thick grove of trees. Tree trunks whizzed past in a blur, twigs and leaves whipping their arms on a particularly close call. The hounds’ barking fell further back.<br/><br/>As the forest grew quiet around them, Cloud slowed the bike, pulling to a stop in a small clearing carpeted by dead leaves. He killed the engine, its sudden absence pressing on their ears.<br/><br/>“Think we lost them?” Kunsel asked when a solid minute passed in tranquil silence.<br/><br/>Cloud sighed, tucking the long blonde hair of his wig back behind his ears and tugging one of the loose straps back over his shoulder. His shawl had been lost somewhere near the start of the whole fracas, and he’d kicked off his heels somewhere on the bike ride so he could change gears quicker. “Probably not. But we’ve got enough breathing time for me to change into something more practical.”<br/><br/>“Ummm, yeah, about that.” Kunsel coughed into his hand. “When you took us through that creek…” He held up the muddy, sodden pack apologetically.<br/><br/>Cloud closed his eyes and rubbed a tired hand across his forehead.<br/><br/>“My offer to drive still stands. You know. It can’t be easy to steer in that.”<br/><br/>“You just want to drive my bike.”<br/><br/>“It’s a gorgeous bike,” Kunsel agreed.<br/><br/>“The answer is still no.”<br/><br/>“C’mon, Cloud, do you know how hard it is to -”<br/><br/>“Shhh.” Cloud went alert and Kunsel fell silent. Up ahead, the trees shuddered, leaves rustling as something passed through the forest. Something big. Something expressing low, rumbling, throaty displeasure at their presence.<br/><br/>The barking of the hounds at their back began to grow once more. And then, crashing into the clearing and rearing up on its hind legs...<br/><br/>“A grand horn,” Kunsel groaned. “Why the hell did I agree to go on a mission with you again? You’ve got even worse luck than Zack.”</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. The Golden Chocobos</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For Anon<br/>Characters: Cloud, Kunsel<br/>Prompt: You mention (imply?) in chapter 19 that Cloud had developed a fanclub at some point. What does said fanclub do?</p>
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    <p> </p>
<p>Cloud paused as his foot brushed the shiny card on the floor, very nearly kicking it under the lounge. Had one of the other SOLDIERs dropped their access card? He crouched to retrieve it – Gaia only knew Zack had lost his often enough and had to beg one of them to let him into the Equipment Room to look for it.<br/><br/>When he flipped the card over though, he stilled.<br/><br/>Kunsel chose that exact moment to wander into the SOLDIER lounge. “Hey, Cloud, I was just looking for – wait, is that one of the GC Trading Cards?” He leaned over his shoulder. “This one is really rare! It’s in good condition too. You know you could get some serious gil for this.”<br/><br/>Cloud fought for his voice. It came out slightly strangled. “It’s a photo of me <em>dressed in drag</em>.”<br/><br/>“I guess that’s why it’s a foil one,” Kunsel agreed, completely missing the point.<br/><br/>Cloud groped for a way to make some sort of sense of the nightmare he’d just stumbled in to. “Why am I on a <em>trading card</em>?” <em>In drag</em>?<br/><br/>“You don’t know? It was a thing started by your fanclub – you know, the Golden Chocobos?” Kunsel tilted his head at him. “Collectible cards, fifty cards all up. They started off just giving out a random pack at meetings, but lately the only way to get them is to trade or get them in one of their scavenger hunts or as prizes in a club event. It got really popular, actually, you’ve got the weirdest fans. Do you know they have an ongoing competition to see who can get closest to your high score in the Speed Square at the Gold Saucer?”<br/><br/>Cloud was, unfortunately, peripherally aware of the SOLDIER fanclubs, and once he became a First Class had resigned himself to the attention. It hadn’t been a big deal, he reasoned – nothing like Sephiroth’s fans, who formed an exclusive clique apparently, or Genesis’s Red Leather fans who outright <em>stalked</em> him. Overhearing the odd person recognising him on the street wasn’t all that different to the notoriety he’d been lumbered with back in his original timeline.<br/><br/>He’d considered himself lucky, all things considered. Until now.<br/><br/>“Who even <em>took</em> this picture?” He hadn’t seen a camera at all through that whole sordid ordeal.<br/><br/>Kunsel squinted at it. “Looks like it comes from one of the security feeds. Maybe you’ve got a fan in the Turks? I think I remember this getting circulated a couple of days after that mission. They were selling prints for a while.”<br/><br/>Shiva, how many copies of this were <em>around</em> now?<br/><br/>Wait. “You’re in the fanclub too?”<br/><br/>“Of course. I belong to all the fan clubs.” He fiddled with his PHS, showing Cloud his message list. Silver Elite, Study Group, Keepers of Honour, Golden Chocobos, Zack Fan Club… the messages went on and on and on. “Zack’s joined most them too. I think he even joined his <em>own</em> fan club.”<br/><br/>Cloud stared at the card in quiet horror, still struggling to process. “So you’re saying there are <em>more</em> of these.”<br/><br/>“Yeah, hang on, I think I have a couple.” He fished in his pockets, and came up with half a dozen cards. “I don’t have very many yet though. Genesis has the whole set.”<br/><br/>Cloud deliberately ignored that last sentence in favour of inspecting the cards in morbid fascination. They were all glossy and black-bordered, with the edging done in silver, framing a random collection of pictures. Some of them were normal enough – one of him fighting a monster in the slums, one of him eating in one of the diners in Sector 4, one that looked suspiciously like a photo Zack had taken in Aeris’s church.<br/><br/>Then there was one where he was halfway through unzipping his shirt. Then another one from the back where he wasn’t wearing a shirt at all. Another one where he was <em>sleeping</em>. <em>Who the hell had even taken those</em>?<br/><br/>“I don’t want to know anymore,” he muttered, and turned to go. Maybe he could request a mission from Lazard and kill some monsters until he could forget about it for a while.<br/><br/>“Hey, if you don’t want it, mind giving me that card? I don’t have that one yet,” Kunsel piped up.<br/><br/>Cloud threw it at him, and didn’t bother to see if the other SOLDIER caught it. Ignorance really was bliss.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Twenty-Two Hours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For tsuanyue<br/>Characters: Cloud, Sephiroth, Genesis, Kunsel, Zack<br/>Prompt: Cloud gets stuck in a time loop with ___. It wouldn't be so bad if ___ didn't have so much fun with it.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>The most embarrassing thing was, neither of them realised anything was wrong for the first three days.<br/><br/>“What do you have today?” Cloud asked as he entered Lazard’s office.<br/><br/>“Ah, Strife.” Lazard greeted him with a short nod. “This one just came in. Ahrimans nesting on the walls of the Reactor in Sector 8.”<br/><br/>Cloud paused. The silence stretched unnaturally.<br/><br/>“Strife?” Lazard prompted.<br/><br/>“Send it through,” he eventually replied. His PHS beeped. He glanced at it, brow furrowing, and left without another word.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>Cloud stared long and hard at the ahrimans nesting on the walls of Sector 8’s reactor.<br/><br/>The second time he’d received this mission, he hadn’t thought anything of it – he’d obviously missed some, perhaps part of the flock had been away and had returned after he’d killed their brethren. It happened occasionally that missions would require follow up. The third time, though, he’d been annoyed. And he’d been <em>thorough.</em><br/><br/>Yet there the ahrimans were. No signs of the carbon scoring from the battle yesterday, or the damage he’d left on the side of the Reactor’s smoke stack with his sword. No way had maintenance been up there in weeks, either.<br/><br/>He glanced at his PHS again. Scrolled up.<br/><br/>The previous mission mails weren’t there.<br/><br/>His gut began to churn.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>Later, after Cloud had cleared the Reactor of ahrimans for the fourth time and reported in, he asked Kunsel, “Have you noticed anything strange lately?”<br/><br/>The Second Class tilted his head thoughtfully, helmet glinting under the fluorescent lights. “Luxiere’s stopped stalking Zack recently. Does that count?”<br/><br/>“You told me about that yesterday.”<br/><br/>Kunsel hummed under his breath as he scrolled through his PHS messages. “Did I? Guess I forgot, sorry. Do you want me to look into something for you?”<br/><br/>“…Not just yet. Maybe later.”<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>The thing was, Cloud was the first to admit he had a bit of a complex about being called crazy. He’d fought hard for his sanity, and doubted it often enough that he didn’t need others doubting it for him.<br/><br/>So he wasn’t going to just walk up to anyone and say that he thought he might be stuck in a time loop. Even with his history of time travelling, it was just far too easy to dismiss it as his imagination. Cloud didn’t make outlandish claims like that without being <em>certain</em> he could back them up first.<br/><br/>But he couldn’t rely on a simple script to prove his hypothesis. He hadn’t had that discussion with Kunsel all three previous days, presumably because some response Cloud made steered the topic elsewhere. His timing was off by just enough that he didn’t always meet the same people in the halls or elevators, and his routine varied enough that he never picked up on any particular patterns outside of those repeating missions.<br/><br/>Maybe he could find the daily newspaper and memorise the headlines? Or maybe Kunsel would let him borrow his PHS for the day’s fanclub updates and what time they would be sent out. But even those could be explained away as insider knowledge. What he really needed was an event outside of his possible influence where the timing and nature of it wouldn’t change – but what, he didn’t know. Nothing remarkable had occurred in any of those days.<br/><br/>Luckily, that particular dilemma was soon solved for him.<br/><br/>Sephiroth entered the Equipment Room, making a direct line for him. “Cloud.”<br/><br/>“Sephiroth,” he replied, wary. Some habits never quite went away. “What do you want?”<br/><br/>“Lazard said you refused a monster clearing mission this morning.”<br/><br/>“So?” Lazard had certainly been surprised – Cloud never turned down monster hunts, after all – but he didn’t see the point in completing the same mission over and over again, not when it was within the reach of any halfway competent SOLDIER who <em>hadn’t</em> already completed the mission four times.<br/><br/>“So it’s something that changed,” Sephiroth said. “And I couldn’t have done a single thing to influence it.”<br/><br/>Cloud stared. Processed that.<br/><br/>It was even worse than he thought. He was stuck in a time loop, <em>with Sephiroth</em>.<br/><br/>He was pretty sure he’d had nightmares about this once.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>“Why just us?” Cloud asked later, once they had compared what they knew and established that no one else appeared to be aware of the anomaly.<br/><br/>“We are ShinRa’s two strongest SOLDIERs. Perhaps it’s an attempt by ShinRa’s enemies to remove us from the equation?”<br/><br/>“But they left Genesis and Angeal and Zack out of it too?” He and Sephiroth were stronger, certainly, but to nearly anyone else on the planet? The distinction between the top SOLDIERs mattered only to the top SOLDIERs.<br/><br/>“Then, we’re left with only one other factor. S-cells. It could even be that only one of us was targeted and the other dragged along because of them.”<br/><br/>Of course. It had to be that. S-cells hadn’t screwed with his life enough already.<br/><br/>The ‘how’ was an even bigger mystery. There was only one question he really cared enough to answer, though.<br/><br/>“How do we stop it?”<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>On the fifth day, Cloud suggested they stay awake for the switch over, in hopes of at least getting some clues. It was no particular trial, except for the fact that Sephiroth decided they should wait it out together.<br/><br/>Until Cloud found himself in his quarters at 6am on the sixth day, his last memory being sitting in the SOLDIER lounge at 4am in a tense silence with his once-rival.<br/><br/>He didn’t waste any time. He got up, and with half a thought, tracked Sephiroth down.<br/><br/>They met at the door of the General’s apartment.<br/><br/>Sephiroth suggested, “Maybe we can try to get beyond the range of it.”<br/><br/>Two First Class SOLDIERs with access to ShinRa’s vehicle fleet could get an impressive distance from Midgar in twenty-two hours, it turned out.<br/><br/>Cloud blinked in Rocket Town, and woke up in his quarters at ShinRa.<br/><br/>Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>By the eighteenth day, Cloud was running out of ideas.<br/><br/>They’d turned to materia initially, since all of Cloud’s time travel woes in the past had come from materia. Esuna was first, naturally. Then Exit, just in case they’d been trapped in cave filled with hallucinogens.<br/><br/>That gave Sephiroth the bright idea that it might have been a simulation, the next step up from the Training Room. They talked with Reeve about the possibility, and how one might break out of such a thing. They went down to ShinRa’s basement and with a pair of Bolt materia unleashed a lightning storm that blew out half the light fittings in ShinRa Headquarters.<br/><br/>They’d even attempted to involve the new Head of the Science Department, and Cloud had spent a very uncomfortable day sitting in the labs submitting to tests while gripping his sword and staring down every lab tech that wandered near. It had been pointless, of course – fascinated as she might have been, and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, the new Head simply couldn’t get anywhere fast enough to do them any good.<br/><br/>Sephiroth suggested that it was time they had a break. They spent the nineteenth day at the Gold Saucer. It took half the day to get there, but they didn’t need to worry about getting back.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>By the thirty-eighth day, their efforts to escape the time loop started growing a little outlandish.<br/><br/>“You resigned from ShinRa? Really?” Cloud asked the next day.<br/><br/>“It was a good opportunity to see what would happen.”<br/><br/>Pure chaos was what had happened. Lazard and the rest of ShinRa had a collective heart-attack. People had spent the entire day alternating between bothering him to get Sephiroth to change his mind – as though he <em>had</em> that capability – and blaming him for it in the first place. Genesis had been unable to decide if he were furious or devastated or elated. And Kunsel hadn’t had so much fun trading rumours and gossip in <em>months</em>.<br/><br/>“At least warn me next time.”<br/><br/>Sephiroth shrugged a shoulder, letting the criticism roll off without effort. “You did suggest that we could try altering our routines to find ‘a perfect play-through’ of the day.”<br/><br/>“Are you even serious about stopping this?” He could swear Sephiroth was <em>enjoying</em> himself.<br/><br/>Infuriatingly, Sephiroth didn’t deny it. “In my position, one doesn’t often have the luxury of declining responsibilities to this degree. Do you know that I attended the same board meeting three times in the beginning before I started to notice that the topics were repeating?”<br/><br/>Cloud understood that. Sephiroth had been flexing his independence of ShinRa more and more lately, in a much healthier manner than he had in a previous timeline, but it was obvious that old habits died hard. Obvious in Lazard’s lost expression after Sephiroth had not only started sending Genesis to the board meeting in his stead, but then proceeded to turn down every mission he was offered that afternoon.<br/><br/>At least, on the days when they bothered dealing with ShinRa at all.<br/><br/>“Perhaps disrupting the cycle enough will break it,” Sephiroth mused. “Maybe we should burn down ShinRa HQ next?”<br/><br/>It was far too tempting. But no matter how hard they tried to evacuate, there would almost certainly be collateral damage. “We’re not that desperate yet.”<br/><br/>He filed away the idea for later, though. Just in case.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>Cloud handled the repeating days fairly easily in the beginning, in all truth. But it didn’t take long to realise how it robbed all the satisfaction from the rest of life.<br/><br/>There was no point to working on his new bike when the work would vanish every day. There was no point to tending the cutting of a flower Aeris had given him when it would never have the chance to grow. There was no point in clearing away monsters when those same monsters reappeared like clockwork. No point shining his sword when the same buffs and scratches would return the next morning. No point breeding chocobos when their eggs would never hatch.<br/><br/>They’d been brainstorming recently, as idea after idea failed to work. And it occurred to Cloud that one of the few forces that might be capable of such of a phenomenon was the Planet itself. But if that were the case, what did the Planet want?<br/><br/>Aeris hadn’t been able to tell him. He couldn’t talk to the Planet himself.<br/><br/>But there had to be a reason it was just him and Sephiroth stuck in this, right?<br/><br/>On the fifty-third day, Cloud sat in his room for twenty-two hours, held his sword in his lap, and contemplated killing Sephiroth.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>On the fifty-fourth day, Sephiroth said, “You didn’t leave your quarters yesterday. Were you taking a day off?”<br/><br/>“Yeah,” said Cloud. “I was.”<br/><br/>Sephiroth must have heard something off in his voice, because he said, “I was thinking of taking the next few cycles off myself. You’re welcome to do what you like.” He paused, then added, “But make sure you include me if you do decide to burn down Headquarters.”<br/><br/>Was pyromania catching? Genesis had become a bad influence.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>On the fifty-seventh day, Cloud asked Kunsel, “What would you do, if you had one day which you could reset once it was over, and act completely consequence-free?”<br/><br/>“I would put every single secret and rumour I know about ShinRa on the Worldwide Network and send it to every PHS on the communications grid,” was the immediate response.<br/><br/>Cloud stared. “You’ve thought about this.”<br/><br/>Kunsel shrugged. “Well, yeah, who hasn’t?”<br/><br/>“Come on then,” he said, grasping the SOLDIER by the arm and pulling him to his feet. “Today is your day.”<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>No one was exactly sure when Genesis wound up in the loop – their best guess was somewhere between the seventy-fourth and eighty-sixth day.<br/><br/>“Of <em>course</em> I didn’t realise,” he snapped. “You two have been gallivanting off doing something different every day, it changes <em>everything</em>. Even my PHS messages are different. It wasn’t until I realised that Angeal didn’t remember any of your previous tomfoolery that I started getting suspicious.”<br/><br/>“At least now we know that it’s the rest of the world stuck in a loop, rather than us being stuck in a loop,” Sephiroth pointed out. There had been a brief period of concern that weeks were passing outside.<br/><br/>Cloud didn’t do well with losing time. He’d lost far too much of it already. He just hoped this wasn’t the universe’s way of giving it back.<br/><br/>He was somewhat reassured by the addition of another SOLDIER to the loop, though. It meant he’d been right not to kill Sephiroth.<br/><br/>Genesis huffed. “Don’t you have a plan to get out of it yet?”<br/><br/>“We haven’t found anything that works yet,” Cloud admitted.<br/><br/>“Our latest theory was that the Planet became aware of Cloud’s interference with the timeline and was itself interfering until we completed some undetermined task,” Sephiroth explained. “So several cycles ago we tried shutting down all of the mako reactors.”<br/><br/>“Most of them, anyway,” Cloud said. “We couldn’t get to the Underwater Reactor or Nibelheim Reactor in time.” Gongaga and Corel had already been decommissioned, luckily, but Midgar’s nine reactors alone had taken had taken most of the day.<br/><br/>“Now that we have Genesis, we may be able to split up and get them all at once.”<br/><br/>Cloud nodded thoughtfully. “It’s worth a shot.”<br/><br/>Genesis stared at them in disbelief. “You really <em>have</em> been doing this for months.”<br/><br/>“Should we tell him about the time we burned down Headquarters?” Sephiroth asked.<br/><br/>Cloud scowled. “Don’t listen to him. He’s <em>enjoying</em> this.”<br/><br/>Sephiroth diplomatically made no comment.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>Occasionally they tried telling others about the time loop – Genesis in particular was insistent that they inform Angeal, and kept this up for a solid eight days before he too gave it up as a bad job. They tried the Turks a number of times with more success – they were among the few in the company aware of Hojo’s experiments with time travel, after all. In the end though they never learned anything new, and the cycle continued uninterrupted.<br/><br/>Cloud even went below-Plate to visit Aeris several times, just to double-check that the Planet<em> really</em> didn’t have anything to do with it. The Ancient was as unaware as everyone else.<br/><br/>That was possibly one of the most unsettling things of all.<br/><br/>At least Genesis’s addition to the timeloop added some fresh variation and new ideas. Once the other First Class realised that there was no way to include Angeal in the loop, he tired of the repetition quickly. It was his notion to commandeer a helicopter to the Northern Crater to see if that had anything to do with it. Cloud agreed, given so many of his troubles started and ended in the Northern Crater.<br/><br/>They blinked, and went from fighting giant tonberries in freezing cold caverns to ShinRa headquarters once again.<br/><br/>“I bet it’s the puppy’s fault,” Genesis huffed later.<br/><br/>“You can’t blame Zack for everything that goes wrong,” Sephiroth countered.<br/><br/>“He’s on a mission in Wutai, anyway,” Cloud said. “He can’t exactly interfere from there.”<br/><br/>Genesis sighed. The room filled with desolate silence.<br/><br/>Then, “Perhaps we could try burning Headquarters down again?” Sephiroth suggested.<br/><br/>Genesis threw his PHS at him. “Cloud’s right. You <em>are</em> enjoying this.”<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>On the hundred and fifteenth day, Cloud went and killed all the ahrimans again, just in case doing a normal run of the day might give him a new clue.<br/><br/>It didn’t.<br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p><br/><br/>Kunsel, unlike the rest of them, realised he was in a time loop by his second day.<br/><br/>“Fanclub updates in the morning were all the same,” he explained. “Plus my PHS lost messages overnight.”<br/><br/>“Curious how the effect seems to be spreading,” Sephiroth commented. “It destroys our original theory that it was caused by S-cells.”<br/><br/>“Maybe just those with Jenova cells,” Cloud offered. “Or mako.”<br/><br/>“Given the selection of people here, it’s probably Zack’s fault somehow,” Kunsel said.<br/><br/>“Ha!” Genesis declared in vindication.<br/><br/>“Or,” Sephiroth theorised, “it could be an issue of immunity. It would be just as easily explained as exposure to Time materia.”<br/><br/>“Go on,” Genesis prompted.<br/><br/>“Given this progression, it makes the most sense if this were caused by a sort of Time materia, and rather than suffering from its effects, we are actually <em>not</em> suffering from its effects, hence why Esuna or any of our other counters failed to work.” He crossed his arms, deep in thought. “Cloud has his Ribbon and is experienced in time travelling. I myself have a similar artefact-” He gestured to the silver buckle on his belt. “-and the S-cell connection with Cloud, which itself may have worked as a sort of amulet. After that, Genesis is the obvious next candidate in term of materia usage – he possesses a mastered Time materia and a high natural resistance from his training, which has likely further built up with each cycle everyone goes through. And Kunsel…”<br/><br/>Kunsel gave them a tight smile. “Yeah. I’ve had my fair share of involuntary time travelling before this too.”<br/><br/>It made a certain kind of sense, even if it assumed an awful lot.<br/><br/>“So if we left it running, eventually others will join the loop as well?” Genesis mused.<br/><br/>“Most likely the other SOLDIERs at least, starting with the ones in possession of a Time materia or who have unusually high materia resistance. Civilians, I can’t be sure.” Sephiroth shrugged slightly. “It is only a theory. We would have to wait for someone else to join the cycle to be sure.”<br/><br/>Which could be weeks, maybe even months at the current rate. It was the most plausible thing they’d brainstormed in a while, and worth treating as the truth until proven otherwise.<br/><br/>“It still doesn’t explain how this is happening or how we can stop it, though,” Genesis complained.<br/><br/>“It can’t be anything originating in ShinRa. We’ve tried too many things here,” Cloud said. “Or anything on the East Continent, either. Some of those changes went far.”<br/><br/>“Um, do you guys even <em>know</em> what Zack’s mission in Wutai is?” Kunsel asked.<br/><br/></p>
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<p><br/><br/>“They sent <em>Zack Fair</em> to investigate a mysterious materia discovered in Wutai’s jungle?” Genesis was aghast.<br/><br/>“What is so terrible about that?” Sephiroth asked.<br/><br/>“Zack once tried to cast my mastered Comet in one of the Training Rooms inside ShinRa, without even knowing what it was first,” explained Cloud.<br/><br/>“He has one of the worst records of materia safety in all of ShinRa,” Genesis huffed. “Made all the more dangerous by his natural aptitude for it.”<br/><br/>“It’s why the Materia Department like him so much, though,” Kunsel said. “He’s the go-to SOLDIER for all of their missions. This one, too.”<br/><br/>“We have a problem, then,” Sephiroth commented.<br/><br/>Genesis glared at him. “Oh, really? You finally noticed that did you?”<br/><br/>“No, I meant that Zack’s mission is in <em>Wutai</em>,” Sephiroth corrected. “And we have only twenty-two hours to make it there in time to stop him.”<br/><br/>There was a silence as they processed that.<br/><br/>“Why not simply send him a PHS message?” Genesis asked eventually.<br/><br/>“He’s in the wilderness,” Kunsel said. “No reception to speak of. I’ve been trying to message him all day and they just keep bouncing.” Cloud nodded his agreement. He’d tried to message Zack plenty of times in the past cycles himself.<br/><br/>“That is the only thing that makes sense. Only by being so far out of contact could he have remained unaffected by some of our previous cycles,” Sephiroth mused.<br/><br/>“I do know where the site he was supposed to investigate is,” Kunsel volunteered. “It’s near the tip of the northern peninsula, close to where ShinRa was originally planning on building the Reactor.”<br/><br/>Cloud thought it over. He’d explored Wutai fairly thoroughly at one point, thanks to Yuffie. Highly mountainous, sheer cliffs edging all but the southernmost part of the island. Their only access had been on foot.<br/><br/>SOLDIERs, on the other hand, could jump from planes.<br/><br/>“We made it to Rocket Town once in twenty-one hours, didn’t we?” Cloud said. “How many hours do you think we can take off of that?”<br/><br/></p>
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<p><br/><br/>They made it to Wutai with two hours to spare. It was the middle of the night back in Midgar, but in Wutai the sun shone high in the sky.<br/><br/>It took a precious hour and fifty-five minutes more than that to find Zack trekking through the thick forest, towards a small ruin nearly overgrown with foliage.<br/><br/>Four SOLDIERs crashed through the treeline, out of breath and covered with scratches, and came to an abrupt stop in front of one very surprised Zack Fair.<br/><br/>“Cloud?” Zack asked. “Wait… Genesis? Kunsel? <em>Sephiroth</em>?” He peered around them. “Where’s Angeal?”<br/><br/>“You were apparently kind enough to spare your mentor this fate. Don’t worry, I’ll be assigning the punishment in his place,” Genesis hissed.<br/><br/>“Huh?” Zack just blinked at them. “What are you guys<em> doing</em> here?”<br/><br/>Nobody answered. Their attention was caught by the ruin Zack had just been arriving at.<br/><br/>It was definitely Cetran – Cloud would recognise that architecture anywhere. It was the first time in <em>either</em> timeline that he’d stumbled across this ruin, though – and small wonder, it was probably only thanks to ShinRa’s advanced scanning technology that anyone had picked up on it at all. Given the lack of pathways in the jungle around them, even the Wutai probably didn’t know about it.<br/><br/>There wasn’t much to it. It was small, only a little taller than him and about half as wide as that. A simple pedestal in a sheltered enclave, covered in vines. And sitting on the pedestal, the largest Green materia he’d ever seen.<br/><br/>A dull watery glow wavered hypnotically in its depths. Where the smooth, crystalline surface should have caught the light, it seemed to absorb it, creating eerie patches of darkness.<br/><br/>“It certainly doesn’t look like it contains that much power,” Genesis remarked. “Are we certain this is it?”<br/><br/>“It has to be. It’s the only thing that makes sense at this point,” Cloud said.<br/><br/>“What’s going on?” Zack asked. “And why is everyone horning in on my mission?”<br/><br/>“This damn materia has stuck the entire world, bar us few unfortunate souls, in a time loop of the same twenty-two hours for the past two and a half-” Genesis cut himself off with a look at Cloud and Sephiroth and amended, “the past <em>five</em> months. At least.”<br/><br/>“Okay, we found it. So now how do we turn this materia <em>off</em>?” asked Kunsel, ever practical.<br/><br/>“Perhaps we could smash it,” Genesis suggested with a glint in his eyes.<br/><br/>Cloud killed that suggestion fast. “Not a great idea. That’s how I wound up in a new timeline in the first place.”<br/><br/>“This thing is causing a time loop?” Zack asked. “How does it-” He reached towards it.<br/><br/>Cloud blinked, and found himself back at ShinRa.<br/><br/></p>
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<p><br/><br/>“That <em>idiot</em>!” Genesis seethed.<br/><br/>“We <em>know</em>, Genesis,” Sephiroth said with an air of suffering patience. “I’ve begun to see your point.”<br/><br/>Cloud just concentrated on getting as much speed out of the prop plane as possible.<br/><br/>They’d broken the world record for getting to Wutai last time, in large part because they’d been able to convince Cid to take time away from the Space Program to fly them partway in the Tiny Bronco. They didn’t manage to repeat that miracle, but made up for it in already knowing exactly where they needed to go.<br/><br/>They arrived once more with minutes to spare. This time when they entered the clearing, Cloud and Kunsel tackled Zack to the ground.<br/><br/>“Ooof! What the hell, Cloud? Kunsel? Wait, Genesis and Sephiroth <em>too</em>?”<br/><br/>“Don’t let go of him,” Genesis snapped, pacing a wide circle around the materia with suspicious eyes.<br/><br/>“What the heck is going on?” Zack groaned from where Kunsel had him in a loose stranglehold. “What’s the big idea guys?”<br/><br/>“The big idea is that you keep walking up to this materia and sending everyone back in time by a day!”<br/><br/>Zack just blinked at them. “Huh?”<br/><br/>“Consider it a new type of Time materia. Let’s call it <em>Rewind</em>,” Sephiroth said.<br/><br/>“I find it horrendous that this kind of materia was always just <em>laying around, </em>unprotected.” Genesis shuddered. “Why by the Goddess would the Ancients have created such a thing? Hojo’s research I could understand, but what point to time travel if no one can remember it occurring?”<br/><br/>“As a security measure, perhaps,” Sephiroth suggested. “One that could not be overcome without recognising that it was being triggered. How devious. The loop would continue until someone developed enough resistance that they became aware of it – and this would almost certainly be the Ancient who created it first, and would allow them to mount a secondary defence at their leisure.”<br/><br/>“Yeah, fascinating,” Cloud deadpanned. Seeing as Kunsel seemed to have Zack under a close watch, he let the other SOLDIER go to inspect the materia with them. “So long as nobody triggers it, the loop should stop then?”<br/><br/>Sephiroth tapped his PHS. “We’re already past the time where we would normally turn back.”<br/><br/>For thirty long seconds, nobody moved, not even Zack. The clearing remained still and silent, but for the shuffle of wind through the leaves and the distant twitter of exotic birds.<br/><br/>“That’s it, then?” Genesis asked. “<em>My Soul corrupted by vengeance,<br/>Hath endures torment,<br/>To find the end of the journey in my own salvation.<br/>And Your eternal slumber.</em>”<br/><br/>“We have to destroy it,” Cloud said. “Can you imagine if ShinRa got their hands on something like this?”<br/><br/>“And how do you propose we do that?” Sephiroth asked. “Considering you’ve ruled out just smashing it.”<br/><br/>That was a good point. Cloud’s thoughts skipped to a certain Black materia he’d been nervous about for a while, and a Time room in the Temple. “I think I know a way. I’ll take care of it.”<br/><br/>“What am I supposed to do about my mission?” Zack complained from the ground.<br/><br/>Genesis kicked him in the side as he passed. “Nobody cares what you think about this, Puppy. Just lie and tell them the materia was defunct.”<br/><br/>“What a shame. Now that we can end it any time, the temptation to use it is high.” Sephiroth actually <em>sighed</em> then, and Cloud still couldn’t process that.<br/><br/>“How do you think I feel? I never even got a chance to try this time loop thing out. I wanted to put every single secret and rumour I know about ShinRa on the Worldwide Network and send it to every PHS on the communications grid,” Kunsel groused.<br/><br/>“You’ve already done that in a previous loop,” Cloud informed him.<br/><br/>“What? No fair, it doesn’t count if I can’t remember it!”<br/><br/>“Ah, that was your doing was it? That was a particularly entertaining cycle,” Sephiroth commented.<br/><br/>“No more time loops for <em>anyone</em>. Especially not Sephiroth,” Genesis declared. “Cloud’s right. <em>We</em> can barely be trusted with this, much less ShinRa.”<br/><br/>“Well, I guess it doesn’t really work when most of your superior offices can remember the loop anyway,” Kunsel consoled himself. “How the hell did you convince me to do that? Please tell me I didn’t put <em>everything </em>up there.”<br/><br/>Cloud stared. It had been an impressively scandalous post, even by Kunsel’s usual standards. “How would I know?”<br/><br/>“Oh, good. You would know if I had.”<br/><br/>“The Turks tried to <em>kill</em> you.”<br/><br/>“Now <em>I </em>want to know,” Genesis complained. “I wasn’t there for that cycle.”<br/><br/>“Did everyone get hit by a Confuse materia back at Headquarters?” Zack asked. “I have no idea what’s going on.”<br/><br/><br/></p>
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